


Marked: Bonded

by ImaLittleInsane



Series: Bond of a Lifetime [1]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Canon, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, BDSM, Dark, Dom Garrus Vakarian, Drama, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Explicit Language, F/M, Female Character of Color, Fluff and Smut, Friends With Benefits, Light Masochism, Marking, My First Fanfic, My First Work in This Fandom, No Shepard Without Vakarian, Past Abuse, Past Cannibalism, Renegon (Mass Effect), Romance, Shepard (Mass Effect) has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Sub Shepard (Mass Effect), Suicidal Thoughts, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:40:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 30
Words: 245,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25218658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImaLittleInsane/pseuds/ImaLittleInsane
Summary: She was experimented on and changed into a being she hates; he was forced to deal with the pain of losing people he cares most about. Years after a night of passion, and accidentally marking each other, a traumatized Lunaria learns to accept herself and a depressed Garrus learns to let go; while connecting, not through their marks, but through their bond for each other as they work together to deal with the Genophage problem."A Mark is only a Mark unless you are fighting for it. There is a reason why we call it a Bondmark and not just a Mark."
Relationships: Female Shepard/Garrus Vakarian, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Series: Bond of a Lifetime [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1964389
Comments: 25
Kudos: 68





	1. Lullaby

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first FanFic after ten years. I know it is dark and depressing in the beginning I am sorry if it upsets you. 
> 
> This Fic does feature Submisse/Masochism. People are different, including me, so what you believe is a Sub/Maso could very well be different from mine. I do consider myself a sub so when writing this fic it dips into how I like to be treated.

Her heart was racing as she stares at the female Batarian scientist in front of her pleading for her not to do it.

_‘Please, no more.’_

Is all she can think before the female Batarian pushes the needle inside.

Hot, everything is hot.

This burning sensation felt like lava to the touch as it ran all over her body starting from the tip of the needle to the tips of every corner of her body. The crying and sobbing of the other humans within the room she is held in began to amplify. It was getting louder and she couldn’t tune it out.

Hot. Pain.

_‘Make it stop!’_

She begged within her mind to whatever god or goddess out there to make the pain stop.

Hot, scorching hot!

Her heart feels like it would explode at any moment as the chemical ran its course within her. After some time it subsides, a cooling effect. She sighs happily thanking whatever being for making it stop. The Batarian behind the scientist watches her body seeming to relax which met one thing, the pain was alleviating. He gave a large grin on his face, and the young girl shook her head sobbing, she was scared.

“Again”, was all he said before she felt the heat within her body again burning her from inside. She screams begging for it to stop, but it never did.

“Again,” he said, over and over every time he thought the chemical was lessening within her body. Her small body couldn’t take this anymore she just wanted to die, just like the others have.

“Please, please!” she sobbed, finally having enough strength to open her mouth.

She was hoping for anyone to have some sort of heart, but it fell on deaf ears. A part of her knew she couldn’t take it anymore, that if this doesn’t stop she is going to explode. The pain was too much as she sobs begging for the sweet release of death; but all she hears was his famous word, again.

Her world was on fire.

The Female Batarian once again walks over towards the young girl a syringe in hand with more of whatever they were putting in her body bringing it towards her arm. Before injecting this drug into the young girl’s body. She saw blinking lights on a screen that was monitoring the process. Pulling away, much to the annoyance of her Boss, she walks towards the computer to read the readings, blinking her four eyes and standing in confusion.

“She’s taking the drug, but her readings are not decreasing like the others. It’s like her body is absorbing it. If we're not careful, Boss this can backfire on us.” She said with a surprisingly soft voice. The other Batarian, the one name Boss, keeps insisting to keep pumping her with this thing growling with annoyance.

“I said, again, if I have to repeat myself, I will put you there instead of her. Understand?!” With a look of fear, she nods and walks back towards the young girl taking the drug and injecting her with it.

More burning, more heat, everything hurts!

The young girl screams again while he gives a wide grin, his mouth showcasing the girl every single one of his sharp teeth.

“Please, make it stop!” She begs again and a slap is her response.

“You humans disgust me. Telling me to stop, how idiotic of you.” He grunts slapping her again. “You are my slave and I am your master; I can do whatever I want. Do you understand?” His eyes glaring down at her, and before she can say anything he grabs her by the small patch of what would be hair, after all the experiments she was forced to endure, there was barely any left. He pulls her off the operating table and slams her head hard against the floor, she screams in pain both from the slam and the burning.

“DO. YOU. UNDERSTAND?” Each word met with more slamming.

The female Batarian kept her mouth shut knowing her place. She didn’t care much for humans, if anything she enjoys doing the experiments, but a part of her wants the girl to live. Not because she cares, but because this is the first young test subject who respond well to the drug. Her mind began to drift towards the older woman who also responds well to it. She notes the similarities between this young human and the older woman. Was it genetics?

A loud slam against the wall took her out her thoughts as she looks to see her Boss holding the young girl up with his hand on her throat, against the wall. His hate for humans runs, deep which she understands, but science is science and she would love to learn more about how this drug affects the organic body.

“Boss, if you kill her I wouldn’t be able to do this test anymore until we find another human who doesn’t die from it.” She whispers, silently begging he would put the damn human down. Her Boss growls squeezing the little girl's throat tighter. She stares, noting that the little girl is scratching at her Boss’s hand, with her mouth open trying to breathe, while her eyes cry as she was bleeding everywhere. The female Batarians gives up sitting down taking notes of the encounter, at least she can do a little bit of studying of this exchange.

“Say it human, 'I am your master, you are my slave'” he growls in her ears. She couldn't take the pain anymore. She couldn't take the words anymore, the torture, the burning!

Hot.Pain

_No more_

_No more_

**"NO MORE"**

The fire in the young girl's body explodes and she begins to scream. Everything within the room picked up and flew back as if the girl screams was a loud shock wave. The scientist and Boss stare in shock as they flew back along with everything else. Quickly they went into action to try to get things under control, but the young girl screams again causing them to fly back. This scream was in pain, this scream felt like adding gasoline to the fire. It was loud and destructive and if not taken under control was going to cause a massive amount of loss.

“Kaara! Stop her!” She finally heard her Boss after the fifth scream. Kaara felt her head feeling like it was going to explode. Blood ran down her face and ears as she looks at the young girl. Fear stops her from moving as she notices the glow emulating from the young girl. This wasn’t just simple biotics this was something more. Red and blue energy were surrounding this little girl wrapping around her like fire, but she wasn’t burning. Her eyes were fully black no pupil insight it’s as if she was an Asari ready to mind-meld. As if knowing Kaara was looking at her the young girl turns her head towards her and screams.

Kaara wasn’t religious, but at this moment, she begs for forgiveness by anyone or anything. Right before her body explodes painting the room with her blood.

The Boss stares in disbelief, but recovers and grabs his shotgun pointing at the girl. At this point, he believes, bullets were the only way for this thing to be destroyed.

It didn’t work

With his thermal clip exhausted, fear began to set it as he watches her turn slowly towards him. Her eyes a dark abyss stares at him, no sound no words, just staring at him tilting her head to the right. To him, it was a known body language in Batarian society that signifies they are superior to whom the gesture was directed towards.

The Boss growls

She smiles

Picking up her hand she uses a warp that he tries to dodge, but instead, it followed him. Once it hit he yells in pain as the burning fills his body; sending him across the room. Blood began to drip from his mouth as he holds the painful feeling that was on his chest.

He looks up to see her smiling at him again, he drew his breath.

********

Laena Shepard was strong, beautiful, sarcastic, brash, genius, scientist, racist, ruthless, the Turian Butcher, a mother, and wife.

That’s what people would say and whisper behind her back, at least the people who knew. A past she can never truly get away from. Her husband, John Shepard, was her rock to keep her stable when the world would throw a tsunami at her causing her to scream for help. When they had their first child, Lunaria Shepard, she promised her little girl she would always be her rock.

A hard slap across her face took her from her thoughts as she stares at the Batarian before her. He starts to choke her as he lifts her slightly in the air; she gasps.

She hates this.

How can this happen? One moment she is on Mindoir raising her daughter with John and the next, she is being tortured on a daily bases to ensure she was beneath these disgusting aliens.

 _'I deserve this.'_ She thought remembering what she has done. She didn't care if Karma bit her in the ass, but she did care that her daughter and husband were caught in the crossfire.

She opens her mouth for air, her hands clawing at his, but he punches her in the face causing her to fall on the ground, coughing as air enters her throat. She was very thin, and tired. The Batarian in front of her starts beating her. The reason? She fought for her daughter.

As much as she wants to fight back, she couldn’t. Her body wouldn’t let her. Instead, she curls into a ball with her eyes closed and holding her head with her arms. Pain is all she felt as he kept beating her over and over, but she kept telling herself not to cry. Too many humans during these years of enslavement cried during the torture. This made the Batarians feel great about what they were doing to them, disgusting.

Not her

Not Laena Shepard

She promised her husband to never cry in front of them. She remembers whispering a sweet goodbye before kissing him as he passes away, the experiments, and torture too much for his body; and even then she never cried in front of them. She remembers the depression she felt as her baby girl cries mourning her father, not a tear fell from her eyes because Laena knew she needed to be strong for the both of them.

He rips her arms away from her head and punches her which took her out of her thoughts, the Batarian gave her a toothy grin. Her eyes beginning to water.

_I will not cry_

“You are worthless” He punches her again, the stinging pain of her broken nose almost made tears fall from her eyes.

_I will not cry_

“Human garbage!” He punches her in the gut causing her to spit blood, and she internally screams biting the inside of her lips to keep from crying.

_I will not cry_

Laena coughs as her body shakes, eyes closing. She can hear him breathing hard; he must be tired. Her mind began to wonder, fighting the tears.

_‘Turian Butcher’._

A title people would know, but would not know it was her.

 _‘I wonder if he knew’_ , a grim smile on her face as she thought of her title that flows within the galaxy. _‘He doesn’t know, that if I had the tools I would rip him apart and study his disgusting shell of a body. I would take his heart out while it still beats and knows exactly how to keep him alive just for him to watch as I dissect it. I would force you to eat your intestines you fu-’_

A scream stops him as his fist was raised in the air ready to strike again and her eyes shot open. This scream wasn’t an ordinary scream, this was something more.

It caused the ship to rock.

He spins around heading for his gun, and Leana saw the syringe. The drug they would give to her.

This drug was different, something they created just from combining all sorts of chemicals that are known within the universe. The drug was painful as it would seep into your body and cause a lot of problems, the biggest offender is burning. Her scientific brain wanted to learn more, wanted to understand what the hell they did to cause such a thing.

Element Zero was a part of this combination, that's for sure. When she was within her mother’s womb Element Zero or Eezo for short, was exposed to her. Her parents tried to keep it a secret, but the government found out. She never did found out what happened to them, hiding a biotic was a big punishment from her time, now, not so much.

Whatever this drug was it multiply her biotics causing it to feel out of control. Because they wanted to test how it worked in her body without implants, they took those out, which was another source of horrible pain, she was lucky it didn’t cause her brain damage like some others.

So many men, women, and children died because these Batarians wanted to test this horrible drug. She remembered one of the Batarians saying she was lucky. Lucky?! She sure doesn’t feel lucky! Having to continue living being injected over and over with this drug, being raped, and the beaten! The worst part, that was just scratching the surface of what they did to them here.

This doesn’t feel lucky!

A grunt took her out of her thoughts as she looks at her ‘master’ fumbling around, she notices he has his back facing her. With some finesse, she picks up the syringe and stabs him. Making sure the contents inside are injected in him. This causes him to scream and turn, and punch her in the gut.

Laena fell over gasping for air as she looks at him, he held the area she stabbed him and glares at her.

“I’m going to kill you!” he charges at her and punches her in the face. Climbing on top of her, he starts to choke her. She struggles against him gasping for some air happy glad to finally die, hoping to finally see her beloved John. Then a thought passes by her, Luna, her daughter. The last time she saw her daughter was hours ago when they took her away for more experiments.

No

She can’t die here, not when her daughter could still be alive.

Another scream

This scream sounded more powerful than before causing the Batarian on top of her to fall forward. She sat up choking and gasping looking at her ‘master’ as he tries to get back up. Turning her head towards the pistol on the wall, her eyes turn back towards him.

Their eyes met, and he knew what shes going to do.

In an instant, Laena gets up running her weak body towards the pistol but was dragged down by her ‘master’. She hears him curse as she struggles.

Another scream

This scream caused gravity to finally fail for a moment and they were sent into the air before crashing down. Laena struggled to get up but was met with a kick to the head. She moans in pain and before she knew it, he’s back on top of her body, choking her. Laena suddenly felt the power within her grow, she was tired of this shit and wanted Luna. Thinking of her daughter dying caused a pain in her that could not stop hurting.

Her body felt like it was on fire as she begged for her daughter to be alive. She doesn’t care about anything else, just keep Luna alive!

The Batarian looks into the dark eyes of Laena, a state of confusion and fear settle in him. Before he knew it, Laena screams.

“LUNA!” Is all she can think about now, as she felt her body explodes in power she never experiences before. Her ‘master’ on top of her screams in pain as his head explodes covering Laena with his blood. She laid there breathing heavily finally feeling that raw power diminishing.

Another scream

This scream told her who was screaming. It sounded as if it was calling to her, a baby crying out for its mother. Laena sits up shakily, walking towards the door frame, her eyes in tears.

“Luna, mama is coming!”

********

Everything was quiet only a whimper was heard.

“Please, I’m sorry” the dark eyes look at him with question tilting its head wondering. The wounded Batarian starts to shake trying to hold his assault rifle, but before he can pull the trigger with his shaking hand, she screams again, his body exploding in mass, decorating the room with the other bodies. A laugh was heard, her body and eyes follow the sound.

She knows that sound.

The Boss was still alive, grinning.

“Saving the best for last, huh?” he spits the blood from his mouth in her direction. She walks slowly toward him.

“You will still be my slave,” she stands in front of him, and before she can scream. Another scream was heard. This made her stop and look towards the direction of the sound.

_“LUNA!”_

Heavy tears start to fall from her eyes as she looks in that direction. Instinctively, her feet begin to walk towards it, but before she could get far the Boss grabs her legs and pins her on the floor while grabbing the nearest scalpel.

“Humans all deserve to die” he growls at her before stabbing her in the neck. Her eyes went wide, black eyes staring at him in shock.

She screams

She screams for what seems for eternity.

_Mommy_

Is what she wants now, just her mommy. While on top of her, the Boss didn’t explode like the others, instead he screams as well. At first, mockingly, but it began to hurt. It was if he was melting from the inside out. It didn’t take long for his stomach to do just that, creating a hole within his body causing his insides to fall out. His eyes, nose, ears, and mouth began gushing blood melting on top of the young girl.

Even with the Boss body a puddle on her, she continues to scream. Screaming for her mother and she wouldn’t stop until she is satisfied. She then hears a sound, soft humming reaching her ears.

_Luna’s Lullaby_

Her mother’s soft voice singing causes the screaming to stop. The young girl laid with her eyes still wide open and black as the abyss, but no more screaming; no sound from her open mouth. A woman came to view singing her sweet song. The mother took the young girl's head into her lap and kept singing rocking her to sleep.

“It’s okay Lulu, mama is here.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, these notes are for answering questions I believe would be raised by readers. Feel free to leave a question and I would make sure to answer them when I am free.
> 
> Who is John Shepard?  
> So I ask this question to myself as I reread to edit. John Shepard is the default male Shepard from the game. Lunaria would be his daughter. I don't like making Male Shep and Fem Shep siblings because it causes me to feel overwhelmed. I can't have only Femshep be a badass and MaleShep a Sidekick always felt weird to me. And since this was always going to start off with only Femshep and her mother why not have the father be Canon John Shepard.
> 
> Why Laena Shepard and not Hannah? How do you Pronounce Laena?  
> Hannah Shepard is for Spacer Shepard. As you can tell this is colonist Shepard, and having Hannah Shepard be the mother just felt odd to me (I also just wanted my own OC TBH). Colonist Shepard is a very big blank slate in the form of family members. You can argue this point for Earth Shepard as well. To pronounce Laena is easy just say "Lana" e is silent. I just wanted to be different!
> 
> Lunaria's Lullaby?  
> If you want to know the Lullaby go on youtube and listen to Huntress Lullaby from the game Dead by Daylight. She is my favorite killer and I just love listening to her song. Weird I know.


	2. Marked Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shepard mission? Gaining information about Archangel but ultimately gets more than she bargains for when meeting Garrus Vakarian codename Archangel. All around Turian bad boy and dispenser of justice in an unjust galaxy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has smut and it's my first attempt! Constructive Criticism is welcomed.

Garrus was staring.

Her hips were moving from side to side with the music in the air. The man behind her tries to find her also pretty desirable as he grabs her waist and starts rubbing himself on her. Her eyes open revealing red, a color he’s never seen before on a human, and a smile grows on her face. She has brown skin and long curly brown that reaches her waist. His eyes were not staring at her waist and hips. When she moves her arm he resumes looking at her eyes.

She uses her arms to reach up and wrap them around the man dancing behind her playing with his hair. She sways back and forth leaning her head to the side giving the man access to her neck much to Garrus disliking. He feels a soft growl erupts from him, and he takes a drink closing his eyes enjoying the taste. 

When they open all he sees again was red, but this time it was looking directly towards him. The man was sucking at her neck. He sees the man nibble on her neck and he looks away in disgust. Taking his eye off what the idiot was doing; he looks back at the red eyes now pouring into his own. She’s human, but there is something animalistic about her. Her eyes staring at him made him feel almost primal, like an instinct to claim her as his own. He blinks looking away. 

_‘Strange’_

Was all he can think as he took another mouthful of his drink. 

“Hey Boss”, said Gunther. He’s a former human C-Sec officer, and like him, got tired of all the red tape stopping him from doing his job. He nodded to him and not before long his entire squad sat around him.

“Why are you always brooding? Come on Boss, this is afterlife live a little,” Kane gave him a nice pat on the back. Kane was also human and was missing one of his eyes, instead of covering it up he decided to walk around stating that it was ‘cool’ and all the ladies love him for it. 

“Me? Brooding? No, I just like to sit here and look mysterious. Heard women love that.” Garrus took another swing of his drink finishing it. His eyes went back to the dance floor and notice the red eyes still looking at him. This time she was alone and she wasn’t just smiling she was grinning at him. His eyes gave attention back to her waist and hips.

_‘Her waist is small and hips are big. Hmm I wonder how it would feel in my hands.’_

Slowly his eyes went back to her eyes which were now calling to him, but he stays in his seat.

Humans weren’t his thing Asari’s either, but Turian women? They were something he enjoys. His eyes travel from the human towards a cute Turian woman talking to an Asari. Her waist was well-formed and legs were nice to look at. As if feeling his looks she turns towards him and her mandibles move using her subharmonics calling for him.

“And BOOM! Never saw it coming. Honestly, I find the blue suns easier to deal with than the Blood pack. The regeneration of the Krogans can be quite…annoying,” His Salarian bomb expert, Malik exclaims proudly. 

“I agree, Blood pack can be a damn nightmare. Give me Blue Suns any day.” Grindal, the Salarian medic nods, taking a swing of his drink.

“I overheard years ago one of the Blue Suns leaders' daughter was taken, and then he was shot and killed.” Kane shook his head as he explains it, empathizing with the old leader as he was shot in the face which, believe it or not, was not fun. That’s how he lost his eye. 

“What seriously? What happened to the daughter?” Shila, an Asari ex-commando askes with shock.

“Unknown, either she’s dead with him. Or just a slave.” Kane said, taking a swing of his drink, looking sad.

"Hit you that hard huh?” Garrus askes looking at Kane who was looking down at his drink. The rest of the squad stare at him wondering if he’s going to say something.

“Losing a kid hurts. Not something you want to deal with at all. The old ball and chain keep me sane, but it’s not easy to let go.” Kane looks up and Garrus can tell he was trying not to cry. He felt bad for Kane. He doesn’t understand what losing a child means, but the thought of losing his family, his team including, did not sit well with him.

“My wife Nalah, she pregnant now. I want her to get off this station because she deserves better. I hope you understand Boss. I know this was out of the blue, but since we’re talking about kids I wanted to bring this up. I don’t plan on disappearing out of the blue you know?” He looks at Jin’in, Turian mercenary with a heart of gold. When Garrus first met him he was kind of surprised how kind he was even after killing someone. Giving a prayer to the dead merc and saying he was sorry before moving on. Hearing him and Nalah is going to have a kid made Garrus happy. Using subharmonics to shows his appreciation and understanding.

“Shit we should all get off this rock Jin! You deserve to be happy. Out all of us, you’re the nicest sonofabitch we got!” Gunther yelled, clearly drunk at this point. Besides him, Garrus’s Batarian tech expert, Ren, groans at the human.

“Gunther you only had two drinks. How are you already this drunk?” Gunther laughs and began to loudly talk. At this point, Garrus chuckles and for some reason looks back at the dance floor, hoping to see the odd red eyes. When he didn’t spot them he tries to not look too disappointed, quietly he gives off a sound with his subharmonics unconsciously.

“Looking for me big guy”, he heard behind him. The booth he and his squad was using was in the corner of the club. So it’s not behind him, but above? Garrus looks up and saw red eyes looking down at him. Her smile full of seduction giving her full attention to him. Damn, that smile.

“Hey Boss what are you looking at?” He turns his head back towards his crew. Did they not see her? Was she a ghost? He went to look back at the woman. She wasn’t there. He nods his head.

“Nothing, let me get you guys more drinks.” This made Ren groan again as Gunther starts to sing. 

Garrus chuckles while saying he was sorry, but ultimately got up and walk over to the bar. The Turian bartender looks at him as though he was suspicious, but took his order and starts making the drinks. 

Garrus gets that a lot seeing how he took off his colony markings. Doing the job that he does can backfire if people know who you are. Archangel, that’s what the locals call him, but to him, Archangel was his crew, not him. To his crew he was boss. A hand slips on his back and he turns around meeting those red eyes again and that damn smile. 

“Hey big guy, can I buy you a drink?” With that smile and her being this close Garrus could smell her. Usually, Omega is full of crap. Air is crap, people are crap. The smell on Omega was just wrong, but after living here for so long people get used to it. Her smell though was something else. If it wasn’t her eyes that got him in a primal state it was her smell. The smell was sweet, but there was something else to it. Arousal?  
It reminds him of a time on the Citadel where he was walking past a human flower shop. There was a smell he couldn’t forget it called Lavender. What a very sweet smell that was and she was smelling a lot like it. 

“I hope it’s just me taking your breath away and not you rejecting a free drink.” She smiles again. Garrus only wants that smile for himself now. 

He chuckles, and for some reason puts more work in his subharmonics as if this human can hear what it means.

_‘Spirits’_

“Oh, there was a sweet smell in the air and I stopped to enjoy it; but no I wouldn’t mind having a free drink.”

*****************************************

Twelve. That’s how many men he has under his command. Which means that’s Archangel right? She needs more information to be solid enough for the Shadow Broker on “Archangel” to fund the hell out of her ship repairs. So far all she knows is Archangel is a Turian, but who was he? Was the Turian she plans to seduce Archangel? Who was he specifically? 

_‘Maybe telling Joker to shoot at that station was a bad idea.’_

He's looking at her again, good. Seducing Turians wasn’t too hard shes’ done this rodeo before. Get him a drink, seduce him some more, and soon he will start telling his life story.

Luna feels hands getting pretty grabby. This doesn’t upset her if he gets too touchy she’s going to kick his ass though. She hears a growl and her eyes instantly snapped to the target. The Turian who is sitting there drinking. Hook, line, and sinker.

She knew that growl, she’s heard it multiple times. Either for her or another woman, but she knows that growl. It was a very low sound that Turians would sometimes do to stake their claim on something. Humans wouldn’t hear it, but she can.

The man behind her starts to lick and suck at her neck and she tries not to grimace. When she was going to push him away but she can feel him looking at her and so begins their staring contest. 

Luna tilts her head showing more of her neck as if to invite him as he watches, and that almost got her. His blue eyes made her almost think twice about this mission. She felt naked in front of him, an animal in heat. 

_‘Careful girl, remember the mission.’_

He looks away, and she feels letdown. Pushing the guy off her she began to dance by herself. Hoping to get the eyes of the blue eye Turian. Sadly he has no markings so she wouldn’t be able to identify him so easily or what clan he is from.

Her body moves with the music, she didn’t care if she was good or bad, just feeling the music in her body. The music is loud but because of her sensitive hearing, she heard screaming, this made her stop for a moment a distant memory plays. Taking took a deep breath she notices it was a stupid human girl taking to her idiotic friends; how normal.

_‘Fuck you’_

“Hey Shepard, think you can get something?” Joker asked in her ear. She loves Joker, he’s like a brother to her; but not right now. Right now she’s on a mission.

“No Joker I will not take bikini shots of myself and send them to you,” She jokes a smile on her face as she hears him laugh.

“Man! One day you are not going to friendzone me! Although that’s not it. The favor I am asking is if you can buy some…um…what are they called again?” Silence on the other line. 

Shepard rolls her eyes and turns towards her target. He was looking at her again and that turns her on. She couldn’t help the smile on her face stretch to a grin. He’s a Turian she knows, but the eyes he’s giving her. She uses her sexy eyes to try to get him to come to her. A small whisper in her mind almost ruins her concentration. 

_‘Dominate me, claim me as yours’_

He looks away towards a female Turian, and that didn’t sit well with her. She can hear their subharmonics to each other and it annoys her.

_‘I am only annoyed because I need him for the mission’_

Once her target finally looks away from the female Turian and smiling at how sad the Turian was because of it. Shepard made her way over to the girl. 

“Hey, do you have a black skycar? A Vorcha is trying to steal something from it.” The female Turians eyes grow somewhat wide. She and her Asari friend rush quickly out of the club.

_‘All mine now.’_

This gave her another pause. 

_‘Jesus Luna relax! This is like any other mission remember?’_

Confident in taming herself, she looks over at her Turian target he was looking at the dance floor with disappointment. This causes her to smile and prompts her to walk towards his corner. When behind him she calls out. 

“Looking for me big guy” he looks confused for a moment which made her think almost giggle, and before she can berate herself for acting in such a manner; his piercing blue eyes met hers. She smiled at him, but for some reason, she felt…shy? What?

“Hey Boss what are you looking at?”, Boss huh? Her eye twitches just a little at that word. Luna hates that word.

Disappearing before any of his crew can spot her. She walks away trying to get back into mission mode. 

_'Boss'_

That one word triggers a lot of repressed memories. Her instincts kick in at this point wanting to kill her target for even having that title.

_'Boss'_

She suddenly smells something intoxicating. It was a smell that drove her a bit crazy. Sometimes she hates that her senses are quite sensitive, especially on Omega of all places, but right now. Right now this smell was getting her wet. 

_‘Maybe I can take a break and resume this mission next time. It has been a while.’_

She set her eyes on where the smell was coming from and it was him.

_'Boss…wait that would mean he’s Archangel correct?'_

With a smile on her face, she reaches out towards him and places a hand on his back. This causes him to turn towards her. She gave him her special smile, a smile she used to give to someone else.

“Hey big guy, can I buy you a drink?” All she needs to do is give him her special drink. Something that would get him talking. She also needs to find a way to get him alone. Her mind wanders to the alone part for far too long.

Snapping out of it she turns and looks at him hoping he didn’t notice she was staring, but since he didn’t give her an answer she got a bit worried.

“I hope it’s just me taking your breath away and not you rejecting a free drink.” She gave him her special smile again hoping to entice him. Then he chuckles, which made her blush and his subharmonics made her bite her lips. She finally heard his voice. 

“Oh, there was a sweet smell in the air and I stopped to enjoy it; but no I wouldn’t mind having a free drink.”

_‘Oh Fuck’_

*********************************

_**'Mission Shepard MISSION!'** _

She lets out a hungry moan, it’s been too long since she been with someone. It’s fine to have fun, but a Turian! Really?!

She wasn’t able to continue thinking as he pushes her against the hotel door causing it to slam shut as he uses his long tongue to lick at her neck. She lets out a moan as he grabs one of her legs causing her dress to ride up. This causes her smell to get even stronger which prompts him to growl. Oh, she wants this, she needs this. Luna places her hands on his chest she pushes him towards the bed, which he ends up sitting on looking at her hungrily.

She gave him her special smile and starts to strip for him. Once she took her dress and bra off she felt his hand reach towards her grabbing her by the thigh pulling her towards him. His talon grazed her thigh lightly reaching up to her panties and she whimpers at the slight pain turning her on. It wasn’t long before he grips the underwear and tore it off. She gasps

“Those weren’t cheap you know,” He gave a very Turian smirk. _Asshole_

“They were in the way of what I want.” Standing up he takes off his clothes. This made her draw her breath as she never really saw a Turian naked. Granted the light came dimly in their dark hotel room which means she couldn't see much, but she can still see a little. Luna bit her lips in hesitation, she knew how to seduce them for information, but sex?

_**'THE. MISSION!'** _

_‘Would you relax he got the drink in his system. He should tell me who he is.’_

_**'Ask him then!'** _

“Are you Archangel?” She blurts out and he eyes her with confusion. Was the drug not working?

“Is this the time to be asking whose who?” She was going to answer, but his hand snuck towards her ass and squeezes it causing her to moan instead. She hears a mumble of “Turians do not have these” and “So squishy.”

She moans louder when his talon dug a bit too deep. The pain, causing her to get even wetter.

_**'He never answered Luna, the drug isn’t making him talk!'** _

_‘I know’_

_**'You never get this close to the source'** _

_‘Just let me think!’_

She felt him nip and lick at her neck as he continues to squeeze her ass, which makes her forget why she was here.

"Spank my ass." She whimpers, and he stops and pulls his face from her neck and looks at her his mandibles flaring giving her a confusing look again.

"Spank your ass? What do you mean?" Her face was on fire if she had a lighter skin tone Luna knew her entire face would be red as a tomato at the moment.

"What you are grabbing is my ass, and I want you...to...spank it." Her voice got lower as she said the last part embarrassingly. He laughs and she suddenly has the desire to crawl in a hole and die. When he felt her pulling away from him he stops laughing, pulls her back closer to him, and brings his face closer to her.

"So that's what this is" He squeezes again and Luna pouts. "Turians call it something different and just in case you haven't figured it out, it can't squeeze it like this. So, tell me when you say 'spank your ass' do you mean this?" She felt his hands slap against her and she gasp loudly. He does it again and she groans while wrapping her arms around his neck pulling herself closer to him; she feels her toes squeezing while she unconsciously stands on her tippy-toes panting under his neck as her body shakes.

"Y...yes." He spanks her again.

"I didn't hear you?" He asks right beside her ears spanking her again harder this time. She whimpers.

"Y..Yes!" Another slap this time he squeezes and she arches her back with her head pulling back, and bites her lips as her left leg hooks against him.

She then feels him again nipping and licking her neck and was grateful for the dim light. Not because she didn’t want to fully see what a naked Turian look like, but she didn’t want him to see how she look like because her skin was full of scars. Multiple cuts from her past that fill her body. Arms, legs, back, and the front was so many scars. She felt ugly. It didn’t help that a year ago when she was trying to let go of her past and finally have fun with a man he stared at her in horror. That told her to never appear naked again in front of anyone.

She was starting to hesitate and he notices then he smirks, clearly thought of something. Now it was her turn to give him a confusing look.

He picks her up and places her back on the bed, and moves both her hands above her head holding her wrists with his right hand as he looks down at her.

“Do you want this? If not we can stop.” He askes looking in her eyes. She bites her lower lip, his voice was God damn sexy!

“First tell me if you are Archangel.” Luna gives him a grin leaning her head forward and licking one his mandible. He gave her a hmm.

“Archangel." His pause made Luna's eyes narrow "Heard he is trying to help Omega. What does that have to do with me? Why do you want to know who I am?” _'Damn it, must be the wrong guy.'_

She stops licking his mandible and tries to kiss his mouth plates, but stops short her eyes meeting his.

_'Might as well enjoy this moment than.'_

“Because I want a name to scream when you make me cum. I wouldn’t want to call you the wrong name in bed. That seems so wrong.” She put as much seducing in her voice. _Who are you?_

Their mouths met for a long kiss. It wasn't perfect, but they got the hang of it. Pulling away he nips gently at her lip and she moans.

“I’ll tell you who I am if you obey me. Sexually of course.” That made her pause. Obey? he wants her to be his Slave? She narrows her eyes.

“Like a slave?” He chuckles.

“Not in that way no. If you don’t want to that’s okay, but I don't think I could have non-rough sex with you. Maybe next time, if we ever meet again, but not right now.” Letting go of her wrist he sits up and she panics. Her body sits up and grabs his arm.

“Wait, what do you mean 'not in that way'?” He looks at her and she can see the hesitation in his eyes.

“Well for one, having a slave isn't what I want; but I have been told I can be rough and demanding. Granted these women were all Turians, never been with a human. You all are so squishy, don't think your race can handle it.” She crosses her arms on her chest causing them to lift and puff out. She didn’t miss him staring at them for a moment.

“You were ready to fuck me right here and now no? Wouldn’t you have been rough then?"

“Well yes and no. Looking at you sparked a desire in me that I usually feel for Turian women. I have met a few Turians who spoke of sleeping with humans. I was...uh...curious, but never acted on it, but tonight. Tonight I wanted to try. As for your other question, no I would have just taken it slow. Wouldn’t want to hurt you, but after you let me 'spank your ass'” He uses his finger as air quotes and she blushes. "I thought about going rougher this time." She huffs and bit her lips. She was very horny and thinking of his claws on her body as he roughly took her made her moan. This made him look at her in question.

“Fine, I’ll... 'obey' you, but you owe me your name.” His hands touched her thighs and begins to travel up her body using his talons. She shook in anticipation. He stops and she groans in disappointment.

“Sorry, haven't filed them yet. I’ll make sure not to hurt you.” He resumes but was lightly touching her this time that left her unsatisfied. She grabs his hand toughing his talons. Their eyes met.

“I want you...to...use them.” A look of surprise was on his face. 

"Are...you sure?" She nods bring his hands backs to her thigh he continues to travel using his talon. She shudders in pleasure and his eyes went dark with desire.

He leans forward and kisses her lips. When she opens her mouth their tongues met, and he pushes her down back on the bed.

When on top he attacks her neck and lifts one of her legs up by the thigh and their pelvises met. It wasn’t long before she can feel his cock. She didn’t question where it came from as she knew Turian men conceals it to protect themselves. She just never actually saw it, and the way he is overpowering her, blocking her from its view allows the mystery to remains.

She bucks against him begging for him without any words to take her and he chuckles lifting himself slightly up and took his other hand slipping a finger inside her folds.

“Oh God” she whispers shaking as he began to pump in and out slowly using his middle finger. Unconsciously she moves her hand against her clit and starts to rub causing her to gasp for breath. He notices and quickly learns that area was important. She felt him pull his finger out and she groans in protest.

“If you want me to continue don’t touch yourself.” His voice got even deeper and she shakily removes her hand. “I want you to open your eyes and look at me.” She did what she was told. A part of her hates that she wants this, but her body was screaming for it. He did say she wasn’t a slave, so it was okay, right?

She heard him whisper a 'good girl' and he resumes fingering her, this time while rubbing her clit.

Each time she would shut her eyes in pleasure he would stop. That was her punishment for not listening to him. She was supposed to look him in the eyes which were turning her on even more. She was giving him control of her body, he wasn’t taking it. This felt different from her past. This felt…good.

She moans louder as he works his finger faster, rubbing her sensitive bud harder, pressing down. She grabs the sheet tightly. Biting her lips hard. Her eyes wanted to shut wanting to live in this moment, but she fought against it not wanting the punishment.

God, she was close.

He kept looking in her eyes and knew she was close judging from how it felt as she tightens against his finger. 

“Hold it,” Her eyes went wide. So close! How can she when he’s doing this to her! No, she couldn’t hold it! She couldn’t!

“I…I can’t” Her eyes were shutting slowly feeling the pressure build-up. He kept looking at her shaking his head.

“Yes you can, hold it for me.” He growls. She moans even louder; she was so close, but she held on. The sheets weren't good enough and so she wraps her arms around his neck rubbing behind his fringe. She hears him groan quietly.

The pressure was getting even more intense as she began to beg him for that sweet release she craves. The fire in her body getting out of control.

"Please, please, please, please!” She kept repeating. He shook his head no and kept smirking.

Her body arches into his and she felt delirious, but she kept holding it. Until he said the magic words.

“Cum for me.” She doesn’t know how loud she was nor did she care. Her body was shaking with her a powerful orgasm. “What do you say?” he coos at her.

“Thank you. Thank you.” She breathlessly whispers at him with her eyes were shut tightly coming off her high.

When she fell backward she was still shaking. So many tensions she never knew were there gone from her body. He shifted his body while she was still coming off her high and grabs both her legs pulling them apart. She was so sensitive that she almost came again when he pushes himself inside of her. She arches her back and rolls her eyes behind her head, moaning loudly. She heard hears him groan.

“Spirits...you’re tight,” He was stretching her and she was loving it. The pain from it all was making her wild. As he kept thrusting in and out she can feel the difference between Turians and Humans bodies. It was painful and not the good kind.

“Hold my legs up higher.” She whimpers, she loves pain, but that was just uncomfortable. Thankfully he listens and grabs both her legs by the ankle and pushing them up towards her head. Deeper. He got deeper. Fuck.

_**'His Name Luna have you forgotten?!'** _

_'It's not Archangel!'_

“Flexible…spirits.” He murmurs before letting go of one of her legs and bringing his hand to her neck. He didn’t squeeze too hard, it was just enough. Her hand reaches around his fringe again to rub that sensitive area. He presses his body harder into her licking and nipping at her shoulder in response while speeding up his movements. At this point, she has one leg on his carapace another on his waist causing him to feel deeper and fuller in her. He thrust harder and faster. This was driving her insane. She was losing her damn mind! 

_**'Then who is he!?'** _

Damn this voice in her head! Their eyes met “Who…fuck..ho…God. Who…are…you!?” She finally manages to squeak out; she was so out of breath. How did she make it get this far? It was only supposed to be a quick 123. Not having intense sex with a Turian. 

He groans and leans his body heavily on her. He grabs the leg on his carapace holding it further to the side to open her legs wider to help ease the unwanted friction on her thighs. Her other leg was still on his waist, tightening trying to bring him deeper inside of her. He was now lightly biting her neck not too hard to leave a scar. She moves her head to her left side to give him full access and he growls, he was now unconsciously bitting harder this time she made her internally beg for harder. He was close.

“Arch…Archangel” He finally so low she almost didn't get it. She can feel his talons on her thighs digging into her. Luna was on cloud nine.

“Arch…angel oh angel! Archangel! She kept repeating trying to make sure she remembers.

It wasn’t until he bites into the right side of her neck hard that she ends up screaming in ecstasy from the pain and pleasure combining.

“YES!” Her climax was so intense her eyes went black; her body was on fire and she bites his neck just as hard. When she finally came down smiling up at him, but his look made her panic.

_'Oh no. He saw, didn't he. Now he thinks I'm a monster!'_

She stares at him in horror as he stares back at her in shock. Before she can say something to him; he drops to his side with his eyes close.

_'Oh my GOD! I killed him!'_

Turning to confirm her suspicions she let out a sigh of relief as he was out cold. She giggles quietly and smiles.

_'Looks like that's all I am getting out of him. I don't know how the drug didn't work on you, but if this is alternative on getting the information I approve.'_

She shook her head in disbelief and kisses his mouth plates lingering there for too long. Eventually, she pulls away and starts getting herself ready to leave.

Sometime later Luna was looking at herself in the mirror in the bathroom and notices the bite mark. She felt oddly happy at this mark even as it bleeds. 

As she cleans away the blood she whispers, “It’s going to scar, but it’s the first one that’s a happy memory.” She smiles sadly remembering all the other scars on her body that made her feel ugly. There was only one man in this whole galaxy that made her happy in her skin though. She closes her eyes trying not to cry, trying not to remember his kisses, his words, and his strong arms holding her while she cries from her nightmares.

"Hey, Shepard you there?” The one and only Joker with the best timing.

“Hey, Jeff what did you want me to get earlier?” She wiped at her eyes and curse under her lips as she realizes she was limping a little and she was a bit sore as she made her way to the bedroom where the sleeping Turian is. Her eyes were staring at him and her body was begging to be near him wanting to be held by him. She sucks her breath in shaking her long curly hair with her hands and style it so that the right side covers the bite and partially her face.

_'Note to self stop by the good Doctor for advice'_

“Yeah Ken and Gab-what Jeff? Oh, crap did I piss you off?” There was fear in his voice.

“No, just remembering the past…sorry.” He was quiet and sighs.

“Forget him Loony, stop making yourself miserable for him. Also Gabby wants you to buy FBA Couplings. Kenneth says he wants credits for the idea, but I rather just say only Gabby.” He laughs. Trying to make her at least giggle.

“Oh! That’s great, I have to play poker with them again. Win more credits.” She gave a soft giggle as she walks out of the room. Before the door shut she turns to give him one last look after she hears his quiet moan and her eyes travel slowly down towards… _'Oh, so that’s how they look.'_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, these notes are for answering questions I believe would be raised by readers. Feel free to leave a question and I would make sure to answer them when I am free.
> 
> It seems odd for Shepard to want to be a sub after her past?  
> Well yes, it's why she struggles with it, but ultimately love the idea of being a sub. Garrus is not taking her without her permission though, she is NOT a slave. Sub/Dom relationships have some differences from Slave/Master relationships, IMO. She is giving him permission to take control while they are having sex, that is all. I wanted to put this answer in case anyone feels offended or gross about this idea.
> 
> Hey, where is the safe word!?  
> Hey, I hear you 100%, but after editing this long piece of text I got lazy! Sorry!
> 
> Allergies?  
> Keep reading and find out.


	3. Archangel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Cat and Mouse games have begun.

### TWO YEARS LATER

“So…”Joker begins to talk a smile on his face.

“No” Luna cuts him off knowing exactly what he’s going to go on about.

“Aw, come on Shepard when are we ever going to come back here. This place is comedy gold! Please?!” Luna sighs. This wasn’t the time for joking. Ignoring her friend she aims her scope at the turret as it moves side to side waiting and watching for any movement. Her sniper was powerful enough to kill the thing in a few shots, but it would alarm the other turrets nearby, and she needs to focus. 

“Joker, I swear if you say whatever corny joke right now I will force you to do pushups.” He whines.

“No need to be so grumpy! Are you going through your ‘Lunar phases’” He laughs as she groans and rolls her eyes. With her breath sucking in she shot three times at the turret, instantly getting it down. A smile on her face at her work but it was short-lived as the other turrets start turning their heads in retaliation. Jumping up she began to run across to another moon avoiding the rockets from the turrets. 

“The Shadow Broker better pay me top dollar for this shit!” After some time and lots of back and forth dodging rockets. Luna sighs in relief and walks to the first bunker. A few rocket drones, not too bad. 

After deactivating the VI in this base, who is rouge at this point, Luna began to collect the stored information.

“Come on Luna you are practically stepping on yourself!” Luna was typing away at the screen wishing Joker was right in front of her so she can chuck it at him.

“Joker, please trying to concentrate here.” After gathering the information, she starts making her way to the second bunker. This one was a little harder, not fun at all. Rinse and repeat for bunker two and now she is making her way to the third and last one.

“Is it because it moonday?” Luna placed her back against the crates with her eyes wide open.

“Oh shit!”

“What’s going on?” He instantly shot up from his chair in a panic. 

“So many fu-” Luna was cut off as a rocket drone come up in front of her and shot at her. She dodges out of the way before taking out her pistol and using her tactical cloak. With this golden opportunity, she shoots at the rocket drones. After taking one down she moves on to the next one taking it down as well, before turning invisible again. There was a small pause in the action where she took a breath. Sneaking her head up she sees a drone floating looking for her and another on the opposite side of her. She hacks and sabotages one of the drones, who in turn starts to fire at the other drones. She took a breath. 

“Shepard you ok?!” Joker asks in fear for his best friend's safety.

“Yeah…yeah, I am fine. The Broker owes me, double my pay.” As she was collecting the data, Luna realizes the VI was talking to her. It asks questions wondering if it’s alive. This gave her a moment of hesitation but a bit of fascination. She wonders what she can do with it and quickly creates an encryption code. It was a precaution just in case doing this very stupid thing wouldn't backfire on her

 _“Will you help it learn?”_ Luna should honestly just shut it down, save her the hassle, but her mind was curious. She blames her mother for this. A smile presents itself on her face. She knows who would love this.

“Of course.” And she collects the VI using her Omni-tool. Now is this a bad idea? Yes. Yes, it is, but curiosity runs in the family. 

“Of course? Sweet! What do you call Luna in Luna? Luception” Luna sigh, looks like she going to need a new pilot, a damn shame this one was pretty damn good.

Before she can yell at him for being horrible she hears a footstep. Standing still not moving she allows the person to move closer to her. Turian?

“Lunaria Shepard you are under arrest for the theft of confidential blueprints. I am ordered to take you, alive, sadly.” Another Turian Spectre and this one sound younger, she smiles. 

“Really? A Turian in Alliance space, that wouldn’t look too good to humans.” She said with amusement. 

“I have permission.” Before he can get closer Luna spun around and used her legs to kick his pistol out of his hands. While her foot was about to meet the ground she uses her Omni-tool forming it into a blade to melee strike him. The Turian instantly recover from losing his pistol and blocks her attack with his own Omni-tool. Their faces met and she smiles playfully at him.

“Has anyone ever told you that you have such beautiful blue eyes. Mr. Spectre sir.” Winking at him. _Where have I seen these before?_

He has blue eyes, a long fringe, and blue colony markings. It was...Cute, for a Turian. Using her legs she went to knee him in his stomach. He saw it coming and use his strength and body weight to push her away. 

He glares at her, “I much prefer if we can do this the easy way.” Taking out his assault rifle aiming at her as she places her hands on her hips glaring at him.

“Why so serious? I just want to be close to you. Don’t push me away.” He starts to shoot and she ran to cover. Using her tactical cloak she began to silently make her way to the exit. She almost got away, but his visor saw her. He reaches and grabs her pinning her against the wall with her back against the wall both arms being held by his on hand.

“Usually being distant, and mysterious brings the ladies to me.” He said as he leans forward and smirks. She laughs at him and glares.

“Huh, is that so?” She watches as he starts to take out an electric handcuff.

_‘I need to get out of this, but ho…oh’_

“That and I am a very capable Turian.” She moves her head back building momentum and headbutts him. She groans in pain holding her head.

“Fuck…I thought only Krogan are that hard!” The Turian Spectre was stumbling back a little groaning himself.

“Are you part Krogan?! Why is your head so hard?! Sprits!” Luna didn’t hear his question as she was trying hard to stop being dizzy.

He recovers from the shock and rushes at her. She was still dizzy but recovers enough to dodge him. Back and forth they went. There were points in time where she got the opportunity to run, but every time she tries he would always catch her, but she would slip from his grasp. This wasn’t going to end unless she uses her biotics but using biotics was painful and something she told herself to never do, but this damn Turian Spectre. He was different alright and new, she can tell. 

_Going to need information on this guy._

They both were finally standing still breathing heavily. Luna needed to find a way to escape. All her other attempts didn’t work, maybe her new friend can help her? Typing into her Omni-tool asking for help. The Turian rushes forward sensing she is planning something, but then a barrier stood in his way stopping him in his tracks. Luna smiles.

“Well, this was so much fun, Spectre. But it’s time for me to go.” She blew him a kiss goodbye. 

“Don’t think this will stop me I will bring you to justice!” He shouts and Luna just gives him a lough laugh.

******************************************

“His name is Garrus Vakarian. He was C-Sec at one point in his life. Fell off the radar for two years, reappeared, and was weirdly able to be accepted into Spectre training, however long that lasted, and now he is a Spectre. Wonderful.” Luna took a swing of her drink while icing her head the coolness made the headache, and swelling, dull.

She was reading up on Garrus Vakarian while sitting in the seat next to Joker as he flies the ship to their next destination. 

“He has a mother, who is ill. A sister undergoing her mandatory military training. A retired father who, big shocker, worked for C-Sec. Looks like his father was pretty by the book.”

“My question is those two years he disappeared what happened? Also, could you just go to Dr.Chakwas to help you with your problem.” Luna groans over at Joker shutting her eyes.

“My guess just secret Spectre training? Heard those trainings were hush-hush. Right?” Luna leans back in her seat looking at the stars. “And no I will not. She will find a way to stick a needle in me.” She wonders if she has her own persecutor! She feels like Kasumi, she quietly giggles.

“Yeah, but that would make the Spectre training lasting four years? Come on Shepard that doesn’t make sense and it’s a huge red flag.” Luna shrugs and he looks at the bump on her head and cringes. “Your fear of doctors is going to kill you one day.” She gives him a pointed look.

“Look this is all the information I am given ok? The Shadow Broker gave me all he has! And don't look at me like that have you taken your medication, Mr. Moreau? No? Don’t judge me.” Joker was right, this was a huge red flag and the fact that the Shadow broker doesn’t know? This was stressing her out.

“You know if it makes you feel better you should be very proud of yourself for pissing off the Council. Although I am sure Kasumi is going through the same thing as you, and she doesn’t have a state of the art ship!” Joker grins.

“Well, the Normandy is her home as well to be fair. She just likes to fly solo, but when she calls she know I would be there for her.” Luna starts humming her lullaby thinking of Kasumi and wondering what adventure she got herself into now.

“I feel like you love her more than me!” Joker said making a sad face while doing an impression of crying.

“I love everyone equally!”

**********************************************************

“I hate everyone equally!” Luna right now is driving for her dear life as she, of course, is on a mission for the Shadow Broker to collect some information. Sometimes these missions can be simple. Sometimes they can be challenging. But on rear cases, this can happen. 

This was insane!

“Hey, you love me!” She can hear him laughing his ass off. _Asshole!_

“Mainly Joker! All my hate straight to you!”

“Aww…I knew you love me the most.” Doing a massive turn and spotting the perfect vantage spot, she gets out her Mako and use her tactical cloak and starts sprinting towards it. While scaling the hills she begins to pray to whatever god or goddess out there to not have the Krogans blow up her damn Mako!

She takes a small breath relaxing her nerves and setting herself into position. She loves the high ground as it is her deadliest. With her Black Widow, that she named Vixen, she never misses a shot. This is why she is known for being an assassin. 

She focuses on her targets with Vixen and shot. 

The Batarian mercenary was the first to go. Good.

All of the mercenaries began to panic wondering where she is. She smiles as she continues to snipe each one of them. God, she loves Vixen. 

They were all dead and she sighs and stands up with Vixen on her hips. Her sentry interface visor suddenly picks up something and she turns toward it, quickly she moves out the way of the shot. 

Tis

Where the hell is the bastard that tried to shoot her? Luna quickly did a scan of the area and moves her body again from the shots.

Tis…Tis

Luna jumps and rolls into cover grunting in annoyance. Using her tactical cloak she crawls a little forward and aims Vixen and scans again.

“This is what? The fifth time we meet again, starting to think you are in love with me. Bastard.” She curses taking a shot and watches him move away to her surprise and disbelief. She…missed?

“Oh…it’s on Vakarian.” She aims.

Another shot in her direction screws up her aim which made her miss, again. 

She was infuriated now.

She uses sabotage on him causing him to drop his weapon. Aiming with Vixen she takes a quick shot, but nothing came out. 

_He can sabotage as well!? What!?_

He brings his assault rifle out and starts shooting. She ran forward ahead of the shots until he exhausts his terminal clips. Using the opportunity of him reloading; she uses sabotage again and she watches him throw the weapon to the ground. Getting ready to run to her Mako as he was distracted, she realizes how far away from the Mako she was.

Great

When she looks back towards Garrus he was rushing at her pistol in hand. She groans and pushes her body to the limit to get away, she can see the mako getting closer!

Hunter and Prey

Cat and Mouse 

She turns her head when she saw grey and blue from her peripheral vision. The asshole was next to her in minutes!

“How the hell are you so fast!” She screams out of breath when she looking at Garrus. He doesn’t even LOOK tired!

“I’m a Turian!” He yells at her before tackling her to the ground. Rolling to a stop both slightly separated. Luna was wheezing as she got up. Garrus, on the other hand, was fine.

“Man you…you really…know how to put a girl through her…p…paces.” She was bent over with her hands on her hips looking at him with one eye open.

“What can I say I like my woman to be Calibrated.” He smirks walking to her. She stands up straight still breathing heavily.

“Is that some sort of kink?” She huffs as he stands in front of her electric handcuffs ready. “At least take me to dinner first honey.” Giving him a kiss and wink. He rolls his eyes.

“Maybe next time.” When he spoke his tone was deeper and it made her shiver. “Hands.” She smiles.

“Yeah, next time!” She starts to run her Maako, it was close enough! Garrus wasn’t going to let her go though, not this time. 

“Freeze!” He brought his pistol up aiming at her from behind. Her arms flew up as she stops in her tracks.

“Come on honey, can’t we have fun later? I have shit to do.” She growls not turning around to face him. 

“The Council-” She gave a dry laugh.

“Ahh yes, ‘Council’. I have dismissed their claims.” She air quoted jokingly as he came up behind her. He went to take her hands, but then he heard the sound of her Mako starting up. He turns in shock mouth slightly open mandibles flaring in anger and admiration? 

“Damn she’s good.” He grumbles running his hands on his fringe as he turns around towards the decoy. The decoy, now facing him, smiles at him and kisses him goodbye.

“This was fun Honey, but things to do people to see ciao!” The decoy disappears. 

Ciao?

*********************************

Luna was resting in her cabin after her annoying mission and escape from Garrus. Their fight left her exhausted and sore. The thought of having her very own Spectre chasing her was nice in theory, but it was tiring. Her missions felt a lot more daunting as she has to always push her body to the limit to getaway. Maybe stealing the plans was a bad idea? 

_'How does Kasumi do it?'_

She turns on her back looking up at the stars that pass by. How many times do they have to meet before shes eventually taken away? This guy was good, really good and it bugs her. 

_'I can't believe I miss my shots! Stupid Turian.'_

"Hey, you asleep Looney?" Joker whispers, Luna internally groans.

"Yes," she hears him chuckle.

"We're close to Omega want to visit?" She turns on her side closing her eyes.

"Yeah, make sure to tell my mom."

"Got it. Sleep well."

Once he was gone Luna drift to sleep. Black hair and brown eyes greeting her.

_“I am scared of you,” He finally admits as he stands as far away from her as possible._

Luna groans quietly as she shifts her body on her right curling into a ball.

_‘I told you what I am,’ she begs, hoping he wouldn’t leave her. He was her everything, how can she live without him in her life._

A sniff was heard in the dark as she grabs the sheets tightly

_“I don’t know what you are. This isn’t what I pictured. What you did Shepard.” He hesitates, trying his best not to relive what he saw. Closing his eyes he took a deep breath._

_‘Shepard? Last name basis now?’ No Lulu, Luna; just Shepard. It hurts the pain inside was burning again. Hot. Pain._

_He sighs, “Shepard we can’t be together anymore.” His eyes were staring directly at her, there was no hesitation. Her heart was now beating fast like it was going to explode pounding hard and loud in her chest. Pain. Fire. Harder. Louder. She tries to hold the thing within her down, but this pain was too strong, a small sob daring to escape._

_‘Please, give me another chance!’ Her voice is loud and deeper. It echoes as her eyes begin to darken becoming dark as the abyss. This makes him wince in fear and she notices._

“I’m…not…monster.” While asleep she sobs begging him to stay with her, but it’s too late. He is too afraid to even go near her. 

_Meow_

Her eyes open noticing blue eyes looking at her, and then a tiny lick which causes her to giggle. Her hand reaches out as the cat purrs as she rubs its head with her hand.

“Archangel here to save the day again?” She smiles as the Siamese cat curls against her chest giving her comfort. Luna wipes her eyes from her tears taking a small breath.

“Thank You for loving me.” She whispers before falling back to sleep this time it was just the dark abyss, she prefers it that way.

Hours later, Luna was sitting at her desk typing away a report she plans to send to the Shadow Broker. Her eyes pull away from the screen to notice Archangel was playing with his toy. Now having a cat on a ship wasn’t the greatest idea, but this cat was different. He didn’t get into trouble, most of the time, and he knew his way around the ship. She begins to think back to how she got him. 

*****************************************************

She met the little guy the night after sleeping with Archangel, Omegas’ Vigilante. She was planning on investigating him more for information, but sadly he died along with his crew and the trail went cold. 

She was feeling a bit hungry and decided to grab something before heading back to the Normandy. That’s when she saw the little guy in a cage and realized he was going to get eaten if she doesn’t do something about it. She had a kitten when she was little back on Mindoir before the Batarians took her. She started to remember how her kitten at the time made her feel better. 

“How much?” The Batarian eyed her, she felt a bit of anger and a want to shoot him in the head, but suppress the urge and smiled at him while pointing at the kitten.

“500 credits.” _'500! What!?'_

“500 Seriously?! It’s just a kitten!” Her eyes were wide in shock. Debating to walk away or not.

“Your right. 1000 credits.” He gave her a grin. She had to close her eyes tightly as she told herself to calm down.

“I’ll buy it.” She heard to her right. Turning towards the voice she notices it was another Batarian. When they were going to give the credit chit towards the vendor she gasps.

“I was here first! Here take the damn 1000 credits!” When she was going to give her credit chit, the Batarian next to her spoke.

“1100.” If looks can kill this Batarian would be dead.

“1110” She pleads

“1120” _'I am going to kill this guy'_

“1130” _'I swear if he ev-'_

“1200” _'Fuck you!'_

“1220” _'Shit. For a kitten Luna come on.'_

“1500!” He yelled. _'This is my last chance!' ___

__“2000!” She gasped giving him her credit chit. The Batarian vendor nodded and took her money giving her the kitten._ _

“Takes for the credits Human” The way he said it annoyed her. 

_Fucking Batarians._

__While she was walking away with the little guy her hearing picked up their voices._ _

__“Nice work, the idiotic human fell for it.” They both laughed. _Hot.__ _

__“There is another human over there let see if we can do it again.” _Pain.__ _

__Everything became dark until there was a meowing sound that pulled her back. The two Batarians were on the ground dead at her feet and people were screaming running away. A dull ache was felt on her neck, Archangels' mark._ _

__Taking back her money she walked away and picked up the meowing kitten. Her mother didn’t question her as she walked silently to her cabin. Joker didn’t throw any of his jokes towards her. Dr.Chakwas wanted to give her medication for using her biotics, but her mother had asked the doctor to give her time._ _

__Once her shower was finished she walked to her bed and lay down trying to calm her body down._ _

___Hot. Pain.__ _

_Meow_

__Turning her head she notices the kitten looked at her with its blue eyes as it walked over to her licking her softly. She’s been crying._ _

__His mark ached again_ _

__“Your eyes are blue like Archangel. Did you know that?” She sniffs as she took the kitten in her arms and held him with happiness. Sadly that’s all she can remember about the Turian. To her, they all looked alike, but Archangel had blue eyes and they were pretty._ _

__The few days trying to find leads on Archangel; she found out he was dead._ _

__Thinking back to the day of founding out caused her to feel sad, no, depressed. A dull ache from his mark and soon the hot pain she knows very well was beginning to build up within her body. She starts to cry and wonders why._ _

_'It was a one night stand and a mission!'_

__A small meow was heard and she looked over at her kitten and smiled, her sadness beginning to fade._ _

__“Archangel here to save the day again?”_ _

__*******************************_ _

**Crash!**

That snaps her out of memory lane when she saw Archangel trying to get to her space hamster, squeaker, again. While doing so he knocked over one of her model ships; oh that was a big no, no. 

“Archangel!” The kitten now cat jumped away and ran to one of its tunnels she made retrofitted to accommodate the cat. These tunnels lead to many places in the ship where he can run off to. 

“Joker! If you see Archangel no treats!” She called out in a bit of anger and amusement. 

“This is why cats are not allowed on starships Shepard!” Joker was laughing. 

“Oh hush.” They both laugh. 


	4. A kiss goodbye

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Garrus and Shepard continue their game of hunter and prey. Is he starting to like it?
> 
> This was fun to write I hope you guy enjoy it

Garrus can still see them everywhere he went. 

His feet were on top of a Blue Suns mercenary’s head with his pistol pointing at it. The mercenary under him struggles against the pain of the Turians’ foot.

“I told you what you want! Let me go!” Garrus' eyes narrow. 

“Mercenaries like you don’t deserve to be let go.” He saw them looking at him waiting for his answer to the mercenary life. 

_‘Kill him! They never let us go!’_

_‘Kill him! Kill him! Kill him!’_

He shoots and the feeling of getting justice makes him feel alive. Makes him feel happy. The feeling came at him fast as it gave him a rush that felt so good he wishes for it, no begs for it to stay, but it was gone just like his team and now he was bitter, angry at the past all over again. 

He takes a deep breath. Opening his eyes to look around to see his handy work. Dead bodies litter the place as he makes his way back to his ship. An explosion was heard as he steps inside.

They still haunt him making sure he remembers his failure as his ships take off.

A hot shower and a nice dextro ration pack later he was in his room on his Omni-tool sending and receiving data. His Omni-tool gives a small noise and he clicks the notification.

_"Come see me when you are back? - I"_

He stares at the message wondering what to say back. Thinking about what waits for him back home should be a nice feeling, but he just didn’t care. 

He decides to ignore the message.

_'Ignore her as you ignore us’_

_‘You failed us, you killed us!’_

He growls at the accusations and before he can say anything back to them his Omni-tool gave a familiar chime.

“Finally something to distract me.”

*************************************************

Lunaria Shepard was a pain in the ass.

At first, it was to bring her to justice, after all the Council was keen on bringing her in; but after some time they told him it’s not a priority anymore and he needs to focus on other things, but if he did bring her in they wouldn’t mind that either.

She was smart and cunning finding ways out of his grasp. Like now. As he chases after her for the sixth? Eighth time? He doesn’t know they play this game so much he lost track; and now here he was dodging, jumping, and sometimes shooting the obstacles in his path that made it harder to get to her. 

They were in an abandoned building which she used to set up her sniper to take out her latest victim, Marshel Tin. He was someone that had a target on his back for weeks now after he sold out his friends for a big pay. Garrus hated his guts and gladly watched as his brains splattered all over his nice new, paid with blood credits, home. At least he was able to enjoy himself with a beautiful Asari before his inevitable end.

He waited till she put away her sniper before charging inside the room she was in to apprehend her. That didn’t go so well when she chucked a grenade in his direction and he had to jump out of the way and get to cover. He heard her running after a bit and he took off after her. Now they were running through this building. He, the hunter, and she, his prey.

She turns a corner and he places his back against the wall slowly inching. When he was about to show his face shots were fired.

“Okay, I deserve an explanation, **honey**.” He hears her say, clearly out of breath. Every time she said that word, honey, he notices she would make sure to emphasize it.

“I don’t give explanations to criminals,” he calls out coolly

“You wound me.” He saw a mirror and its reflection gave him a clear view of where she was. 

Lining his shot he pulls the trigger the bullet quickly ricochets off a metallic surface and got her in the hand causing her to drop her pistol. She curses and tries to run.

He jumps out of cover pistol pointing in her direction and she stops in her tracks hands in the air. 

“And here I thought you love me as much as I love you.” She spats and he rolls his eyes. 

“I would much rather drop dead than love you.” She glares at him and in a blink of an eye throws a sticky grenade at his feet. He jumps away. Before she could run he shoots in front of her causing her to stop her, she groans.

He can’t be lethal since he has to take her in, and oddly enough, unlike the other criminals he has no mercy towards; he wants her to live.

_‘Only because she keeps me sharp’_

“How do you keep finding me?” He smirks.

“I’m a really good detective.” He wasn’t wrong, working in C-Sec has given him the experience to be good at uncovering all sorts of mysteries. The main problem that was holding him back from enacting what he wanted was, the red tape; but now he’s a Spectre which means, no red tape. He wasn’t perfect though there were plenty of times he would fail at locating her. When he does find her it makes these meetings special.

_‘Start thinking like that and it starts looking like you like her’_

Garrus shoves that thought as far down as he can.

“I guess I should be better at covering my tracks.” Her feet then glows and she kicks the desk in the room and it flew towards him, he dodges eyes wide in shock. 

_‘How the hell?’_

As he stands there looking at the spot she was just standing at. He blinks away the shock and starts to pursue her again. 

“Biotics? Really?” He calls out as he runs from behind her. She turns her head and laughs.

“Oh! Does it hurt knowing I’ve been holding back this whole time?” He growls and sprints faster towards her. She gives him a shock expression and turns her head back pushing her body harder.

“Shepard I can see you are getting tired. Just surrender now.” He hears her grunts.

“But, where’s the fun in that!?” He finally catches up to her getting ready to tackle, when she looks at him, her eyes are black as space.

She then blasts him away from her. He flew back and hit the wall coughing and tasting some of his blood. Turning, he sees her standing looking at him, he notices her nose was bleeding and she was breathing heavily. Her eyes went back to normal and she uses the wall to keep standing straight up. He tries to move but his body refuses.

“Your….eyes.” He coughs and she stares in a panic before jumping out the window. He sprung up fearing she just killed herself, before seeing her land using her powers to levitate. She looks back at him, clearly in pain, giving her famous goodbye.

A blowing kiss goodbye.

Falling to the ground on his back he stares at the ceiling.

“I’ll give you something to kiss.”

***********************************************

After finishing patching himself up he took a seat, his body was tired, and so was his mind. He sighs quietly, the ghosts of the dead staring at him. He glares at the floor before taking a datapad and flinging it at the wall.

“What do you want? I killed him already!” They didn’t say anything nor move. He can remember the blood on the floor the bodies that were mutilated. He closes his eyes.

A chime from his Omni-tool got his attention. 

_“Hey come to the Citadel? Would really love to catch up. - I”_ He hesitates, but when he looks up their hollow eyes stare at him.

_“Yeah, think I need a break. - G”_

_“Great! I’ll make sure to make your favorite. - I”_

He stares at the screen for a moment before getting up and heads to take a hot shower. She’s a great female and would make an excellent bondmate, so why does he still feel empty and unsatisfied with her? His father seems to approve of the relationship, and his sister likes her, but he just wasn’t happy.

His mind went back to the mark on his neck. He remembers being with a human female the day before his entire team was killed. Everything was in great detail, but the only problem was…the memory of her was full of darkness. She was a silhouette in his mind and he couldn’t remember anything not looks, not voice, not anything. He knows she was real, know she was there. Hell, there was proof! 

He was obsessed with the mystery and couldn’t let it go, but no matter how much he focuses on it, nothing takes shape. 

Turning off the water he takes a towel to dry off and heads into his cabin, but not before passing by his mirror and noticing the bite mark. He stops and stares at it for a moment. A bondmark, something that was very intimate and important when it comes to 

Turians. Biting the neck and breaking the skin shows others you are claimed or in human terms, married.

It wasn’t like he couldn’t get it removed, he just didn’t want to. Stubborn, he was called by his father who disapproved. Didn’t help that it was a human who he bonded with, and the best part he doesn't know who she was.

He really should get it taken care of, but he wasn’t in any rush. Plus it helps in this little situation he was in. With this mark on, she can’t ask to be bondmates. He was okay with this, but eventually, they are going to need to have a serious talk. 

“How close are we to the Citadel?” 

“ETA 12 hours Spectre Vakarian,” His ship VI replied. With that in mind, Garrus went to his bed and fell asleep.

***************************************

He feels an arm wrap around his waist bringing him to her. He didn’t think much about it as he gave her what she wanted. 

“I love you,” she whispers her subharmonics calling out to him. He didn’t say anything, couldn’t say anything. If he did then she would want him to say it, and he couldn’t take that guilt. He was already full of guilt.

“Garrus?” He remains silent closing his eyes tight, hoping she would just go to sleep. She didn’t waver. 

“I know you are awake, you can’t fool me you know.” She gives another sound, begging for him. 

“Please talk to me.” He sighs sitting up and looking at her. She was laying on her side mandibles moving indicating that she was sad. 

“Are you upset with me?” He shook his head lazily.

“Just trying to sleep Iika. You should too.” 

“Make love to me then.” She sits up and starts nipping on his mandibles, his plates shifts. 

“I don’t _‘make love’_ , I told you this before we started…well, this.” She stops, and he feels bad. She glares are him taking a quick look at the bondmark before looking back at him.

“So what is this?” She points at the mark

“You know what this is.” He gives her a lazy look.

“Clearly you know how to ‘make love’ with a _human_ ,” He unconsciously winces at her word. “But you can’t make love to me? Do you not like Turian women? Are you a xenophile?” He closes his eyes in frustration, this fucking argument again.

“No, I am not a xenophile I have always been with Turian women. I’ve only been with a human once.”

“Yes and that human just so happens to be your bondmate! You don’t even know who she is! I don’t understand why you just won’t take it off. I know your father is very by-the-books, but it’s okay Garrus you can get it removed. No one is going to condemn you for doing it. After all, it was _‘in the moment’_ right? Not making love.” She was begging trying to have him understand.

“No.” He gets up leaving her in the bed and starts putting on his clothes. She was making sad sounds to him hoping he would stay hoping he would say he was sorry.

“Garrus.” She whispers sadly. For a moment she thinks of a way to have him stay with her. Iika got up and started to coo at him with her subharmonics. “Take me then, I’ll be a good girl from now on.” His plates shifts.

***********************************

Guilt was all he felt as he tries to push aside what he did.

 _‘Need a distraction’,_ he thought as he paces on his ship. It’s been two days after visiting Iika, and he couldn’t let go of the guilt that plagues him. She loves him, but he doesn’t love her. She was a kind woman and she deserves better. He wasn’t scared to let her go, but she didn’t want to let him go. Should he really be blamed? His Omni-tool made a sound.

“Hey be safe, hope to see you again. Love you”

Guilt. He feels obligated to stay with her because she deserves to be happy. If being with him made her happy he would stay. He touches his mark and sighs. 

_‘Next time I go back to the Citadel I’ll get it removed.’_

Maybe he can force it. If he stays long enough in the relationship he would grow to love her and to finally be a good Turian, isn’t that what his father wants?

He shakes his head dismissing the thoughts there is a mission he needs to do.

“How close are we to the Strabo system, Eagle Nebula?”

“ETA 1 hour Spectre Vakarian.” He nods and looks into his mission.

Jarrahe Station was said to be abandon and needs to be taken down to ensure it doesn’t fall planetside. There were also reports of a rouge VI. 

Once he boards the station he walks inside the doors shut behind him. 

The station was silent and there was blood in the air, human blood. Taking out his gun he starts to slowly walk noting the human bodies which were in unusual positions.

 _‘Need to be careful who knows what’s in here’._ Quietly he steps around the corner ready to shoot whatever killed these people. It wasn’t until he hears something banging that he spins around to see who it is. Red eyes.

Lunaria Shepard

She was smiling at him and pointing to a console. He laughs as he walks over towards her a grin on his face.

“Perfect, I finally caught the great Lunaria Shepard, and I didn’t even have to work for it.” She gave him a confusing look, and places her head on the glass showing her ears, she couldn’t hear. He laughs again and she glares at him through the glass.

Pointing at the console again she looks like she was screaming at him. His mandible flares in amusement.

“I can’t hear you.” He smiles as she kept screaming moving around back and forth she looks like she was going to pull her hair out. She kept pointing at the console to him, but he didn’t care this was just hilarious. 

“Like a Pyjack caught in a trap. Tell me how does it feel to know you are finally going to see justice?” He crosses his arm, and she finally calms down at least he thinks she did before she starts to cover her ears and falling onto the floor in pain.

“Shepard?” He questions, when she kept laying on the ground in pain he panics. He wants her alive! Rushing to the console he starts typing to see what he can do. The encryption was pretty strong, but he was able to get the doors open. Once the lock was green he ran inside in a panic.

“Shepard!”

“That’s what gets you to actually open the door Vakarian!?” She stands up from her position hands on her hips glaring at him. He was tricked.

“So you were not in pain? Or going to die?” She giggles and walks to him and places a hand on his chest.

“Awe so sweet, my knight in shining armor! Garrus Vakarian.” Before he knew it she quickly places her lips on his mouth plates. He couldn’t speak as he stares at her in shock his body heat increasing.

She walks around him to leave through the door, but he recovers and grabs her arms.

“Hey! I’ve been stuck here for too damn long for you to manhandle me.” His face got close to hers. _‘Her eyes are…no! Focus!’_

“What was that? And why are you here!?” She gives him an innocent look, he swallows.

“What? The kiss? Come on **honey** , clearly, the universe wants us together, and I am here on official business.”

Shepard is a pain in the ass, and why was it so hot.

“No, I mean you being stuck in the room!” She looks up finger tapping her lips.

“Right, so there is a rouge VI who wants to clearly kill all infected and weirdly it thinks I’m infected. Can you believe that?” She shakes her head and turns around and begins to walk.

_‘Her waist and hips, the…no! She’s getting away!’_

“Come on Vakarian let’s go find out what’s going on. So we can get off this station.” 

“You’re coming with me, Shepard.” He grabs her arm again, and she huffs.

“Are you serious? Alright fine. Let’s go leave the station.” She smirks and Garrus feels uneasy but leads the way to the exit to see the doors are locked.

Great

He tries to find someplace to hack and open the station. After about five minutes he hears Shepard cough.

“So big guy, let’s go! Off to your ship right?” She grins mockingly and he groans. 

“Not a word.” He turns. Giggling at his annoyance she follows.

An hour passes and they were clueless the only power to the station was where they were at, which wasn’t that big, but there has to be something. Shepard was taking point as they kept looking around and Garrus was watching her as…six.

_‘Damn it! Focus!’_

“Anything Shepard?” She was looking over a datapad and after staring at it for a moment she drops it on the floor. 

“Well, I did find out where the VI controls would be. We passed by it a few times, but it was locked. We need to find a way to power the station. Also! This area is running out of Oxygen.” She points to a blinking red light, the VI wants them dead. She then pulls her hood on her head and uses a breather mask while Garrus places his helmet on.

There was a crash and Garrus' head turns to see a bed sticking through the window. Shepard climbs on the bed using it to get herself through the window without dealing with the broken glass that was stuck on the windowsill. As she was climbing he gets a nice view of her ass and watches.

_‘Damn, it’s so…round. I wonder how squishy it is’_

“You liking the view Vakarian?” She shakes her ass from side to side, “Didn't think you'd to be into humans. Do you want to spank me?” She teases.

 _‘Spank me’_ Garrus felt like he heard it before, but hearing her laughter took him out of the memory.

“Come on we don’t have all day. You can look at my ass after I promise.” Garrus sighs and makes his way to her.

They finally got the power on and was starting to move to the next part of the station to turn the other side on. Shepard was oddly quiet and it made him worried.

Something made a sound and Shepard jumps and unconsciously got closer to him. She was afraid? Oh, this is going to be fun.

“Scared of a little noise Shepard?” He teases and she glares at him.

“Shut up!” He laughs.

“This whole time you were acting all tough and now you are scared of a little noise?”

“I said SHUT UP!” He felt a force push him into the wall and he got angry.

“What so you can joke and everything is fine, but once I say a joke you want to kill me?” She was quiet. Garrus rolls his eyes and starts walking forward. He suddenly picks up on a noise…whimpering? He turns in Shepard's direction and notices she wasn’t moving instead she was trembling, back against the wall, and hands-on her head.

“Please, stop I am sorry. No more, no more pain. Stop. Stop.” 

“Shepard?” He made his way to her hands about to touch her shoulder when she screams.

“GET AWAY FROM ME!” Her eyes were black as the abyss just like before, and he flew back. Another scream was heard and he grabs his helmet as if he’s trying to block the sound. She was crying now begging again.

“Please! Please! It hurts! EVERYTHING BURNS!” She screams once more, Garrus groans before fighting to stand up. Tears were running down her eyes and she was still shaking. He notices she was glowing as if she using biotics, but there was red mixed in with the blue. She was spinning around panicking as if she was hearing voices and screams again, but Garrus held himself against the wall. 

He needs to get to her.

Scream after scream kept pushing him back making it a struggle to get close. During her frantic spinning, he was able to get close enough to take her in his arms. She spins to look at him with her eyes black and wide looking at Garrus is fear; and begins to scream again, but Garrus held her tight. Her words caught in her throat still shaking begging him not to hurt her.

“I won’t hurt you I promise. It’s me Garrus or Honey or Vakarian whatever you want. It’s ok, no one is going to hurt you.” He whispers to her as he bends a bit to her level and puts his head against hers. She was sobbing now, no longer about to scream, and he hugs her tightly as they slide to the floor. He kept whispering to keep her calm.

A syringe with red liquid on it lays on the floor beside them.

Shepard was quiet, and he didn’t want to ask or say something to her. He wasn’t scared of what happened, but he was worried about her. She was always so full of life, was cunning, cocky, a pain in the ass, and good looking, for a human of course. Seeing her this quiet and sad, made him feel hurt? Sad for her? There was clear trauma from her past to make her act like this, but he didn’t press.

“I…I’m sorry for that. It’s very rear that I have a mental break down.” He didn’t say anything as she sucks in her breath forming her thoughts fumbling with her hands as she looks to and fro from the floor and him.

“Usually I get mad you know? Just a burst and there is my curse on display.” _‘Curse?’_

“But this time…this time I broke down, I lost all control and I am sorry for that.” Her hands were covering her face whipping away the tears that fell from her eyes. Her nose and eyes were red and puffy from the crying and she starts to play with her curly hair as if she can tame the crazy curls.

“It’s okay, really, not going to scare me away that easily.” Her head snaps towards him with wide eyes.

“Your…you’re not scared?” He gives a low chuckle.

“I mean yeah there is the initial shock of it, but I’m not scared of a little squishy human like you.” She punches his arm but genuinely smiles.

“You know only my mother can break me out of that state. The last time I was like that…I…had to wait for my body to exhaust itself. No one could stop me.” She whispers, her eyes were cast downward in thought. He didn’t say anything just allowed the quiet to surround them.

When they finally made it to the VI control Shepard was typing away grumbling.

“This one is one hundred percent no. Plus having one rouge VI is enough.” Garrus gave her a curious look as she kept typing. Ahh, Luna base. 

“Wait, you have the rouge VI from Luna base?!” She didn’t look at him keeping her eyes on the screen.

“Well, I don’t have it with me right now, no. But I did collect it.”

“Hmm, Luna.”

“Don’t…” He smirks.

“So basically” He got behind the console and look at her.

“Garrus…” Her lips were shut tight and he can see her mouth was twitching.

“If your name is Lunaria.” 

“I swear to God.” He swears he see her crack a smile as she kept looking at the screen.

“And we were on Luna.” He reaches out and grabs her chin making her look at him.

“ **Honey** …” She gave him a threatening tone in her voice and her eyes narrows, but he can hear the laugh in her throat.

“Luna was stepping on Luna. How does that make you feel?” She burst out laughing her eyes closed at this point. He still has his hand on her chin as he watches her laughing away at his really bad joke, but listening to it causes a feeling in him that he thought wouldn’t surface after the death of his team. 

When she was leaving to go back to her ship she turns around and blows her famous kiss goodbye, and he realizes the feeling.

He was happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, these notes are for answering questions I believe would be raised by readers. Feel free to leave a question and I would make sure to answer them when I am free.
> 
> Turians?  
> Yeah...most of my research when it comes to Turians was other fanfics and of course the Wiki, I am not the best, but I do try. I hope you're not cringing too hard!


	5. Tie-Breaker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shepard and Garrus meet again, but the meeting has a different outcome.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter contains Smut

Luna was in pain. 

She got reckless and wonders if he’s in as much pain as she is. She hopes so because honestly fuck him. 

This was her assassination it was going to be quiet, discreet and if there is any information that the Shadow Broker wanted, he was going to get it. 

Luna sucks in her breath trying not to cry. There was so much anger, but she wouldn’t allow it to control her right now. She didn’t want to scare or hurt her shuttle driver. Closing her eyes she watches the memories play out.

****************

_She readied her aim as she watched the target, a Batarian with a smug look on his face. He was one of the top leading slavers in the terminus system and she had no problem taking this guy out. Her memories were starting to appear and tears were building up._

_Hot._

_Pain._

_The two most important feeling that she gets when she knows the thing inside her was going to awaken. Taking in her breath to better steady herself, finger on the trigger._

_“Lunaria Shepard we meet again,” She moved quickly away from her position as he was about to pin her down. Anger grew in her eyes as she stared at this damn Turian._

_“You have got to be kidding me! This is not the time Vakarian!?” She was about to scream as a feeling deep within her core was about to explode. If she doesn’t kill this slaver when will there be another chance?!_

_“I followed the trail of bodies. If it’s not information you are hunting for, it’s high profile bounties.” She rolled her eyes._

_“Honestly this is the worst time for you to be here right now.” In the corner of her eyes, she watches as he began to board a ship. She ran away from the Spectre and tried to get to the target, but this Spectre, no, Turian was fast. Like a predator to his prey, he rushes to get a hold of her. She lets out a gasp as he reaches and they both fell forward with high momentum._

_Once they hit the ground Luna groaned looking up seeing the ship fly off._

_“NO!” She screaming taking her gun out and went to shoot, but it was too late. A groan came from the Turian and she turns around ready to blow his head off with her pistol. Her emotions were getting out of control, but she didn’t care._

_Using his long legs he kicked her and forced her to fall. Jumping up he climbs on top of her getting the upper hand pulling her arms behind her back while holding her body down with his own._

_“GET.OFF.OF.ME!” She shouted, but that didn’t sway Garrus as he held her._

_“I’m sorry Shepard, but you are under arrest.” He said almost sorry._

_“A fucking SLAVER got away and your concerns are the information I stole from the Counsel!?” He didn’t say a word just kept restraining her. As he was getting ready to cuff her when she heard Kenn her Qurian shuttle driver call out._

_“Commander!” He threw something and she knew what it was and closed her eyes. She felt Garrus lift some of his weight but when she moved, he double down._

_This pissed her off._

_Not only did a slaver got away, but having Vakarian holding her down like this made her feel trapped; under control of someone bigger than her, just like before, just like when she was younger, just like the Boss._

_**"You are my slave, I am your master"** _

_Hot._

_Pain._

_Filled her body and her eyes went black. She felt him fly off her as she growled looking towards him. Garrus got up coughing a bit from the shock before staring at her._

_“I am NOT your slave!” She yelled out using a warp that hit him in the chest. He flew a far distance coughing and spilling blood. When she was going to head over to him Kenn called out._

_“Commander lets hurry and get out of here!” She was sobbing now and screamed._

_“Shepard!” He called out to her coughing more blood._

_**‘I won’t hurt you I promise, it’s me Garrus’** _

_She closed her eyes tightly breathing heavily._

_**'It's ok your not there anymore, let it go'** _

_When she opens her eyes she’s back to normal and looked back at Garrus._

_Their eyes met_

_Angrily she cried, pissed he stopped her from killing that piece of shit, but even more angry at herself for hurting him._

_“I’m sorry,’ was all she heard before she rushed to the shuttle the pain of using her powers starting to set in._

**************

“Kenn I am sorry you had to see that.” She whispered. He didn’t turn back, she was worried he was scared of her…like him.

“It’s ok Commander, just glad I could help. I do hope you are okay.” He said honestly. She smiles before thinking back to Garrus's apology and feeling a dull tingly from the mark.

_'I'm sorry'_

"I'm sorry too" she whispers and puts her head into her hands' tears forming in her eyes.

Once Luna was back on the Normany she was rush straight to the med-bay, much to her protest.

Dr. Karin Chawas was her mother’s best friend, and because of that her Godmother. There was a time they never spoke to each other, but learning that her friend was alive and living in Omega, Karin left the Alliance, and never looked back.

“Honestly, can’t go a mission without adding to the scar counts.” Karin chuckles shaking her head while applying medi-gel to the wounds. Luna sucks her breath in biting her lips.

“You know me. The more scars I get the badass I feel.” Luna said dryly, she just wants to go to her cabin and sleep today has been exhausting. Hiding her true feelings she gives Dr. Chakwas a small smile before it turns into a frown staring at the needle. The doctor pats her shoulder.

“I know this isn’t what you want, but you need this in your system after using your powers Luna. Why don’t you close your eyes and picture something else.” Luna shook her head.

“Once I see it, that image won’t go away doctor. Do you think we can do this another time, besides the pain, I feel ok.” That was a lie, and the doctor saw right through it and gave Luna a small sigh shaking her head no. Luna was panicking, needles were not fun at all. She wished there was a liquid form to the medication, but she needed it in her veins to work properly. 

The door to the med-bay open and her mother Dr. Laena Shepard walks in and smile while wearing her lab coat. 

Dr. Laena Shepard was a little bit taller than Karin and has dark brown skin; her hair was long brown, with a hint of grey, dreadlocks that were placed in a large bun at the moment. Her eyes are red like Lunas’ and were behind, although she doesn’t need it she felt safe behind them, glasses. 

“Luna giving you trouble Karin?” Her voice was warm to Luna’s ears sweet and a little deep, something that makes her feel safe. 

“Well she doesn’t want to take the shot, and she used her biotics. You think you can distract her like before?” Luna sighs looking down ashamed. She wasn’t a child, but the trauma she endured stops her from being normal.

“I know I need this, it’s just…hard.” Warm hands touch her softly and she looks up seeing her mother's eyes. They both suffered at the hands of the Batarians, and it hurts they can’t just be norm- Ow! 

“And done. See that wasn’t so hard.” Luna glares at Karin and her mother laughs quietly. 

“That was unfair.” She can feel the burning decrease which made her feel better. 

“That Turian keeping you on your toes lulu. What is this fifth? Sixth?” Her mother places a hand on her chin looking in the corner calculating. 

“Ninth time actually.” Luna came off the bed and took out the ponytail she used during the mission allowing the wildness flow of her long brown curly hair. 

While doing a little stretching of her neck and shoulders her mother narrows her eyes at the mark. Luna, feeling embarrassed, covered it with her hair, and smiles at her mother. 

“Ninth time huh? This cat and mouse game has gone on longer than I expected.” She shrugs.

“I rather him over any Spectre any day.” Her mother was still staring at the mark, which made Luna bite her lips in nervousness. Her mother finally spoke.

“I asked you to remove this scar, Lulu.” Before Luna can protest her mother puts up her hand. “I did tell you what this scar, no, bonding mark, mean right Luna? I know your fear of surgery, but this is not something you want.” Her mother pleads

“I know what it is, and honestly, is it really a problem? I won’t be running off with any Turians, who it actually matters too. Plus my heart is only…for…someone else…” Her voice getting smaller as she thought of his brown eyes and voice. She closes her eyes for a moment.

“I hope you know if you haven’t bitten him back, by breaking of the skin, that mark signifies you’re his slave.” Her mother claims with a straight voice, no emotions behind it.

“I am NOT a SLAVE.” Luna gasp loudly glad the medication Dr. Chakwas gave her was keeping her powers at bay. Laena sat down in the chair behind her and crosses her legs looking at her daughter lazily. 

“You never told us what happened that night Luna,” The doctor chimes in leaning against the bed. Luna turns her face feeling some heat and a hint of red shows on her caramel skin.

“I got his name and left that’s all.” Laena sighs and Luna glares at her mother. 

“If that’s all. That means you are claimed by him unless you get the mark removed Luna. I know it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, but I know how you feel about this subject and I beg you to get it removed from your body immediately.” Her mother looks at her sadly.

Luna groans in annoyance. Placing her hand on the bite mark and bits her lower lip. “It was two years ago. It’s the only good memory I have when it comes to these ugly scars.” _, 'And Archangel,'_ She inhales than exhales looking her mother in the eyes, “I finally felt beautiful, accepted, and alive something I haven’t felt after…” Karin starts to rub her back giving support while Luna stares at the ground memories of his arms and the whispers of I love you. 

Her mother’s eyes were stern and never wavers as she sat there, she then asks her daughter a brutally honest question.

“Did you bite him back?” 

“Laena! I much rather we did not get too personal.” Luna kept staring at the ground. 

“Did you bite him back hard enough to cause him to scar?” Ignoring Dr. Chakwas Laena leans forward, she wasn’t an idiot the body language of her daughter already told her the answer.

“Yes,” Laena stared at her daughter then closes her eyes, place a hand on her face, and groans.

*********************

A week later Luna was trying out a weird looking fruit and reading a datapad while sitting at the desk inside her ship's garden. With a look of surprise, she looks at an Asari who is now tending to a dextro vegetable and calls out. 

“Hey Juniper, this fresh fruit is amazing! Can I try the Dextro-Levo one now?” Juniper is the ship’s gardener and a young Asari at 268 years old and has purple skin. She joined after Luna saved her from a Blood Pack mercenary who tried to kill her on Omega. She hates fighting and prefers to keep to herself in the garden.

“R..really? Mixing Human with Asari fruit has been a success then! I am glad you like it, commander. Maybe we can add another hydroponic then? I've been looking into asking Kenn if we can maybe buy some seeds from the Flotilla, I'm sure he would grateful.” She said while smiling and looking up momentarily before going back to her plants.

“If I can get the money for it sure, and June please don't get you hopes up. There is a good chance they won't sell.” She bites into the fruit again before Joker calls out.

“Hey Shepard, Shadow Broker wants to talk to you.” Nodding Luna made her way past her mother’s laboratory and the ship’s information room. Once inside the QEC, or Quantum Entanglement Communication room, she accepts the call from The Broker.

“How may I be of service?” She always makes sure to be serious with The Broker. Her mother taught her: _“Never bite the hand that feeds you”_ , his fake voice speaks.

“Nassana Dantius has overstayed her welcome Shepard. I want you to deal with her.” And he was gone.

*************************************

Illium, according to Luna, is the twin pretty sister of Omega. Luna hates Illium, instead of people shooting you the face, they would rather shoot you in the back and honestly, that’s just disrespectful. 

“Joker, can you believe it! Nassana Dantius I am going to enjoy this,” Luna grins while walking calmly through the port making a momentary back face when noticing a sniper mod. 

_‘100,000 credits! Are you shitting me!?’_

“Man you hate to see the pretty ones go,” Luna scoffs. 

“Are you serious? This is Nassana Dantius the one who used me to kill her sister and never paid me; Nassana Dantius” She was younger and was just starting as an assassin; her trainer did warn her, but she didn’t listen. Getting conned like that was annoying. 

“Yes, yes I know. Hey, maybe you can you know ‘Embrace Eternity’ for payment before you take her to the 'Goddess’, if so please send pics.” Luna rolls her eyes and took a sky car making her way to the tower. 

When she lands she looks up and felt the annoyance in her grow. 

“So Dantius towers is under construction. Great, the last thing I want to do is to fight my way up there.” 

“You can always set up shop somewhere and take a shot.” Luna shook her head.

“That’s not going to work.” Seeing a human worker making her way towards the tower Luna smiled. “Pretty cliché, but it gets the job done.”

It didn’t take long for her to work her way up the tower, even with the Eclipse gang that is partially under Dantius control. She quietly made her way to the elevator that seems to only be used by the gang. 

_‘Looks like this is how high the uniform can take me.’_ Taking off the uniform she redresses in her suit.

“You there what are you doing here?” She turns to see one of the members walking towards her assault rifle in hand.

“Sorry, sir looks like I took a wrong turn.” Before he could do anything she uses her hands and feet to maneuver the assault rifle from his hand and fought him to the floor. She smiles at him tilting her head to the right as he looks at her in fear and shock shaking. 

“Stay quiet and no one needs to die, but Dantius.”

“HELP! THE ASSA-HHHHH!” She kicks him out of the tower window and she watches him fall while whistling raising an eyebrow and chuckles.

“I guess he wanted the expressway down.” She shrugs and makes her way to the top floor.

The door blew open and multiple shots were fired at the direction of it. After some time the shooting stops.

“No one can survive that!” Nassana growls. “You! Go check!” before the merc can get far they were shot in the head. Everyone in the room was now in a panic trying to find where the shot came from. 

Nassana is then stunned in place as she watches as each of her people around her drop dead before she turns around looking into the red eyes of Luna smiling at her. She shrieks and hits the desk shaking gasping in fear.

“How long has it been Nassana? Three? Five? Now you are on someone shit list and I would reap the benefits.” Nassana began to plead as the pistol aims at her head.

“Shepard? Goddesses am I glad to see you! How much can I pay you? You know I can pay you double of what the other person wants right?” Shepard looks to be in question.

“Double?” She asks a smirk on her face.

“Of course!” Luna nods her head in agreement while Nassana finally let's go of a breath she’s been holding.

“So this includes interest correct? Five years Nassana and you still haven’t paid me for my job.” She gave her a matter the fact face, and Nassana curses under her breath.

“Yes! Yes of course! How much?”

“100 billion credits” Luna kept a tight lip but inside she was laughing at Nassana’s eyes widening. 

“WHAT?! I don’t have those kinds of credits!” Luna gave her a quick tsking sound shaking her head in disappointment. 

“Nassana, I am trying to be generous here, I mean look at this tower, you must be swimming in credits. Now I expect this payment immediately. I’ll give you three seconds to get all of this ready and prepared for me.” Nassana’s eye grew wide panicking.

“Shepard come on you know me. Please don’t do this!”

“One”

“Look give me a few days and I would give you the credits!”

“Two”

“One day just one whole day and I’ll get it for you!”

“Three”

“Ok! Ok! I’ll transfer it now!” Luna smiles. Her Omni-tool gave a sound and she smiles looking at it. Nassana relaxed letting the breath she was holding out until she saw Luna frowned. 

“This isn’t all the credits Nassana.” Her pistol raises.

“It’s all I have Shepard Please!” Raising her hands to her face in fear. Shepard put her pistol down.

“Alright! Were fine.” Nassana looks still in fear but lowers her guard shaking.

“Really?”

“Of course not.” Nassana falls to the ground eyes wide, dead, and pulls her body away from the desk leaning it against the wall. Satisfied with her work Luna walks over to the desk and brings up a screen. As she begins to collect the data and information someone walks through the door and she looks up. 

“Your late honey,” She said with as much seduction as possible. “Can we not fight today, not in the mood, and honestly we always end up in a tie.” She flashes a smile as her eyes met his. 

“You know me so well beautiful. What is it you humans love to say? Fashionably late as always. If it bothers you so much we can skip right to the tie-breaker.” His mandibles flare and she can hear his subharmonics giving her a flirty sound. 

“Don’t use those flirty sounds at me, Honey, I’m still upset with you.” She said to his surprise. 

“Wait you understand? I know aliens can hear it if they are close enough, but they could never understand it.” Luna giggles, and starts walking slowly towards him with her hand on the desk sliding with her, his eyes following her. 

“I’m not a normal alien, Vakarian.” Her voice was slurry as she stares at him. Of all the times she has looked into his eyes she never focuses too much on it, but now there was something particular about it. 

In the back of her mind, something was itching at her. Trying to remember something, had she met Garrus before their game? 

“Well…uh…good to know.” He said nervously caught off guard by her just like when she kissed him back on Jarrahe Station.

“So, tie-breaker huh?” Standing in front of the desk; she was close enough to smell him, and it was turning her on. 

_'I know this smell.’_

“It was…uh…a joke.” He coughs and she leans on the desk.

“A joke huh? Why do I feel like ‘tie-breaker’ has a story.” She smiles his eyes went to her legs and travel up her hips to her waist staying there for a moment. When his eyes went back to her his mandibles flared.

Her eyes still were focusing on his blue eyes. They look so familiar there was that itching feeling again screaming at her to remember.

His visor that was seated on the left side of his eye was doing something she notices. Once she gives him her special smile, a smile that has only been given to two other men who were out of her life even if she didn’t want that, yet here she was giving it to a Spectre, and not just any Spectre, the Spectre whose been chasing her for almost 8 months now.

He steps forward eyes becoming cloudy with desire. 

“Oh not much of a story, just a female Turian and I that couldn’t settle our fight while sparing. I had reach, but she had flexibility. So instead we decided to settle it…in her quarters.” As he spoke he was walking towards her stopping in front of her.

“Maybe we should settle it then. Your reach with my flexibility.” Their eyes never wavering as they stared at each other. His hand grabs her chin. 

_'I know these eyes.'_

Her breath hitches as his body press hard against hers and he leans getting close to her face.

“Alright, Shepard if I win you’re coming with me. If you win your free to go until next time.” His voice got lower, and God this it turns her on. She heard many Turians during her life, but his voice was just something else. 

He smirks, “Deal?” He asks again. Shit.

“Deal.” She said smiling sweetly at him, leaning forward and kissing his mouth plates. 

_‘I know who you are.’_

It didn’t take long before their tongues start to overlap, she fought against him but his tongue was longer and bigger he dominated her, but she didn’t care instead she loved it.

His armor fell piece by piece for her it was different. Her 'armor' was just a stealth suit that resembles her friend Kasumi’s, the only real difference is the colors that are red and black and she prefers to keep the hood down in most cases. Getting it off only took a moment of pause and she grins as she heard him growl. 

He lifts and puts her fully on the desk. She looks down licking her lips at him battle harden ready to fuck her silly. 

“You like what you see?” He whispers in her ears licking her neck and grabbing her waist as his talon dug into her, not too deep, but enough to cause some pain which made her moan in pleasure. Eyes closing and her head leaning back Luna uses her both her legs to wrap around his waist trying to persuade him to enter her wet core. She needs this.

“Oh yes, please.” She begs and his mandibles move to give his popular Turian smirk. His right-hand grazes up towards her breast leaving scratch marks along the way and she whimpers, she has a feeling he knows she loves this pain he keeps giving her. His head leans down and begins to lick at her nipple as his right-hand plays with the other. Her body was on fire and this time the good kind.

“Please what?” Is what she heard as she willed herself to calm down remembering the bet. She turns at his voice biting her lower lip and showing her neck, she heard him growl in desire, or was it jealousy? 

_‘He doesn’t know, the drug worked!?’_

His tongue stretches out and continues to lick her nipples as he stares at her. Luna’s mind went blank and she moans feeling the wetness increase between her thighs.

“Come…on do I have… _sigh_ …to say it?” She was panting and shaking. _Hold it Luna come on._

His right-hand stops massaging her nipple, much to her disappointment. She made a sound that made him grin pulling his face away from her nipple and closer to her. She felt his hand rubbing her lower body. Just a little lower…please. Her eyes were pleading and she can tell this was exciting him.

“Please what?” He starts to rub her clit lightly, teasing. She whimpers. This whole time her hands were gripping the desk. She didn’t know until she pulls them away leaving dents, because of her biotics. When she was going to touch herself he grabs her hand and squeezes, and felt his talons scratch her again. 

“Please what Shepard?” He growls demanding her to say it. She couldn’t take it anymore as his hands left her sensitive bud and squeeze her waist making sure to use his talons.

“Please fuck me.” He licks her neck still not pushing into her.

“Fuck you where?” This Turian! She hesitates for a moment before whispering.

“Fuck my..uh..pu..ssy?” Where is the confidence?!

“Come on Shepard, I’ve chased you all over the galaxy and you are always so confident. Where is the confidence?” He smirks again teasing while squeezing her waist harder. Oh, the pain felt so good. She grabs his neck licking his mandible and nibbles softly on it before finally giving him what he wants.

“Fuck my tight pussy, Spectre.” She groans to him. He growls before shoving it inside of her so hard it was painful. She yells in pain and pleasure beckoning him for more. Her legs that were wrapped around his waist tighten causing his hips to scar her on her thighs. The pain. The pleasure. Everything was causing her to lose control and she loves it. 

It wasn’t long until he lifts her by her ass and squeezes hard with his talon breaking her skin. She moans in ecstasy as her arms wrap even tighter against his neck. For a moment she opens her eyes and saw in the corner, the dead body of Nassana Dantius wide-eyed and shock. Giving her the middle finger as she gets fucked by this Turian Spectre made her laugh.

Oof. 

Luna was slammed on the desk and looks shocked. Before she can say anything he leans forward his chest against hers, grabbing the desk with one hand, the other grabs her ankle, and stretches her leg to the side. Luna rolls her eyes in pleasure while arching her back and uses her nails to scratch the sensitive area behind his fringe he growls in her ears.

“Shepard…” He was close. She manually squeezes his cock from the inside, grinning as she can hear him pant. Now he was fucking her even rougher, oh fuck. He licks her mark which drove her wild and nips her neck.

_'Does he know?'_

Hot, her body was hot. So close. Her toes squeeze tight and her nails dug into him.

“YES!” Her eyes went black as her body was on fire. Garrus groans loudly eyes closed while pushing deeper inside emptying himself in her thrusting harder a few times before finishing and letting go of her leg. When he picks himself up a little trying to catch his breath; he looks at Luna’s face and noticing her eyes were fully black. He grew a bit confused before it changes back to white with red pupils. 

She blinks a few times looking up at him breathing hard her arms spread open on the desk and both her feet touch the floor as she tries to calm herself. When he tilts his head in confusion Luna bit her lower lip and covered her breast with her arms.

“Yes, I…I have a lot of scars stop looking at me like I’m some alien.” He gave her a look and laughed.

“You are an alien to me.” Her face grew hot and a hint of red appeared on her cheeks. “I was just wondering why do your eyes turn black? Like an Asari's mind-meld. This happened before on Jarrahe Station when you broke down, you even said something about a ‘curse’, but this time it happened after we just had this interspecies liaison.” He chuckles, she panics. “I mean you are human correct?” 

_"I am scared of you Shepard"_

That question causes pain in her chest. She suddenly felt insecure and worst, a monster.

“I should go.” Garrus stops chuckling and looks at her confused and while she was trying to pull away from him he grabs her hands.

“Hey, what did I say to make you sad?” She laughs bitterly. 

“Like you give a shit how I feel. Are you not trying to take me to jail?” She tries to pull away from him but he took her hands and pinned them on the desk and looking her straight in the eye. “Get off me.”

“Not until you tell me what I said was wrong.” He was determined, just like trying to take her in. 

_"I don’t know what you are."_

Tears were beginning to form, she needs to get out. He held her even tighter and she let out a quiet sob. This causes him to ease up believing he was the one hurting her and remembering last time.

“I…I am sorry…I didn’t mean to do that. I…sigh…just want to know.” She can hear him comfort her with his Turian sounds begging her to look at him and she did. Their eyes met and her heart skips a beat. As if on instinct their foreheads touch and she calms down, tears no longer running down her eyes.

“Thank you, but I don’t want to talk about it please.” He pulls back, let go of her arms, and he brought his lip plates to her and she moans softly at the gesture and felt overwhelming happiness as their tongues dance with one another. When out of breath they pull apart and he places his forehead on top of hers again, she smiles softly while her hand touches his mandible.

_‘I thought you were dead’_

“So clearly I won this tie-breaker.” She gave a face, “but I am a kind Turian and would let you go, again. Turian 10, Human 0.”

“You came before me! This game is rigged! 10-0? That’s bull and you know it!” Smacking his arm and laughing, he gives a Turian smirk. _Asshole!_

“There, there I know there are other things you are good at.” She sticks her tongue out at him. He was staring at her oddly which made her stop laughing and give him a look of confusion.

"What?" He shakes his head and scratches behind his fringe he looks away bashfully.

"Sorry, don't mind me." She rolls her eyes and pushes him away playfully.

"Come on big guy, let's get dressed before the merc sees us naked."

He was watching her put her clothes on. She gave a little wiggle shaking her ass to get the tight suit on. 

“That seems highly inefficient you know.” She rolls her eyes and turns to him giving her hair a little shake and using her hands to comb out the knots that were beginning to form.

“I have you know this suit is quite capable because my jobs require me to be quick and quiet. So yes it’s light in the armor department, but it helps keep me safe from causing huge alarms and to sneak around undetected. With your heavy ass armor, how did you get past security?” Hands-on her hips as she gave him a small pout. He scratches the back of his neck with a chuckle. 

“Uh…we don’t need to talk about it. I was as discrete as anyone else.”

“Uh..huh.” She flashes him a smile and walks towards him. Standing on her tippy-toes she gave him another kiss. He was about to keep going, but she giggles. 

“Bye Archangel,” and she uses her tactical cloak to disappear. She broke out in laughter when she heard his response.

“Wait!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, these notes are for answering questions I believe would be raised by readers. Feel free to leave a question and I would make sure to answer them when I am free.
> 
> Normandy?  
> The Normandy is the version from ME3. Instead of a meeting and scanning room its now Mordins lab, but bigger. The "information room" is the war room and the QEC is the QEC.  
> The ship's garden is pretty much the armory and meeting room from ME2 combined. Hope that helps anyone picture where is what. Everything else on the ship is explained in later chapters.


	6. Past Present Future

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Garrus can't let go of his past, wants a future, and tries to live in the present.

_‘Bye Archangel’_

Garrus was pacing in his cabin wondering how she knew about his past. Very few people knew who he was, and the only ones who knew were: his father, sister, the Counsel, and his mentor Nihlus Kryik. Now apparently Lunaria Shepard knows as well. His past was something he was still trying to get over something his mentor has been trying to distill in him since the beginning of training. 

_“Let go of them Garrus, no point dwelling on the past,” Nihlus repeated as they spared. Garrus clutched his mouth as tight as he can trying to focus, but all he can see was the blood of his men. He was left open and Nihlus took that opportunity to cause him to fall onto the ground._

_“Your father and I are good friends, even if he hates what I do. Because of that, I pushed to get you this position as Spectre since you asked. Should I be worried?” He asked walking over to Garrus standing above him._

_Garrus closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He wanted to be a Spectre. After being saved by Nihlus as the request of his father, his interest in becoming one was reborn. He spent some time with Nihlus asking questions on what it was like. Learning you can do your dealings without the stress of having a team or partner and this made him want it more._

_If he goes back to Palaven or C-Sec he would have to work among others and at this point, he much rather work alone. Not having to deal with the red tape that comes with Palaven’s military or C-Sec was also a bonus. Garrus added the pros and cons and becoming a Spectre was leaning heavily towards a pro._

_He looked up at his mentor and shook his head. “No, I’ll let them go. Becoming a Spectre is something I need to do.” Standing up and getting into position, Nihlus nodded his head and got into his position._

_“Good.”_

He gave up pacing and just decided to sit at his desk trying to distract himself. Then it clicked, Shadow Broker agent. Unless she was a secret Spectre who he didn’t know about. The only way to get information this hidden was from the Shadow Broker. He needed to look into her once on the Citadel, there he would know more about Shepard. There has to be more about her somewhere!

_“Please! Please! It hurts! EVERYTHING BURNS!”_

She went through something tragic and Garrus was determined to find out.

_‘Why not just ask her? After all, you both did have sex with each other.’_

Garrus plates start to shift as he thought about the red eyes human. Her long flexible legs, the way she moans, and the way she squeezes when he’s deep inside her tight folds. Garrus groans feeling himself about to show, but he pauses. Red eyes?

Red eyes. Where has he seen them before? There was music involved. A club?

Red eyes

Red eyes

He closes his eyes and kept thinking of the red eyes, trying to clue in on them; but nothing seems to bite. 

_“YES!” and suddenly his cock was being squeezed._

Wait…that was not what he was trying to figure out.

_Her moans filled the room and it was driving him crazy. When he squeezes hard enough with his talon on her waist she gives a sound that brings out a primal feeling._

_‘Claim her’_

When his plates expose his desire, he opens his eyes and realizes he was breathing hard; but then he remembered when she showed her neck to him.

_‘She’s claimed’_

During that moment he wondered why she was so open to sleeping with him and to find out she’s done it before made him feel odd. But then he thought of his bondmark and quell his anger after all he has no right when he to has been ‘claimed’.

_‘I wish she was mine.’_

He thought to himself, but smelling her arousal and seeing her naked in front of him caused him to ignore such thought and enjoy the moment.

_‘Shepard’s a criminal. A criminal I am tasked to take in. It just won't work.’_

He groans as his arousal wouldn’t go away and all this thinking of a naked Shepard was not helping. Getting up he walked towards his bathroom.

“How close are we to the Citadel?” He asks his ship VI.

“ETA 2 hours Spectre Vakarian.” Taking his clothes off he begins to shower. The water cooling him a little down.

_She was so wet and tight as he thrusts inside of her there was a wet sounding noise. She squeezed again. Spirits._

Garrus growled in frustration, hopefully, this doesn’t keep happening while on the Citadel.

***************************************

“Are you listening Spectre?” Tevos asks. Garrus mandibles gave a little twitch as he stares her in the eyes.

“Yes Counselor, if it looks as if I am not paying attention. I assure you I am.” He wasn’t. His mind wandered back to the red eyes he’s been trying to figure out.

“Who knew to have a Vigilante as a Spectre was a bad idea. It’s as if they only have a one-track mind.” Udina spat, Garrus felt himself growl lowly.

“Honestly why did we have him added as a Spectre? All he does is chase after that human, wasting precious time.” Garrus fought the roll of his eyes at Valern's statement.

“With all due respect Counselor, you were the most vocal on getting her under control no? If I may quote ‘your main priority is to deal with this human and get back the information she has stolen immediately!’” The Salarian glares at him.

“It was a priority until I realized how incompetent you are.” Garrus was ready to talk back, but Sparatus brought his hand up to stop the back and forth.

“Stop. We have more important issues to worry about. Garrus there is no need to chase this woman anymore, as we said before, but we will not tell you not to. As for the matter at hand, we have an issue of galactic emergency. The Genophage.” Garrus stood straight and listened to Sparatus, judging from the look this feels like the Genophage was already cured.

“A Salarian named Maelon Heplorn, a former STG geneticist, gained access to the research of the Genophage and has since vanished.” Tevos calmly states. 

“There have been reports that he was captured by the Krogans since he was last seen with them,” Valern states.

“Or he is working with the Krogans,” Udina remarks, this pisses of Valern as he glares at him.

“He was captured Udina, there is no feasibly way a Salarian would work with Krogans.” He gasps, eyes narrow. Garrus smirks the two who were ganging up on him just a moment ago are now at each other’s throats.

Sparatus coughs causing the two to stop bickering. “Garrus the other Spectres have been informed of this delicate issue. Sadly we would have told you sooner, but alas we could not reach you.” Before Garrus can defend himself Tevos spoke.

“We hope you can put aside your chase with this human and focus solely on this. We have much to do Spectre, until next time.” Garrus nods and turns around walking away.

*********************************

Dealing with the Council was never enjoyable if anything he wishes he didn't get a call to report to them, but learning about the Genophage and what could happen did worry him. Right now he was in the Spectre office buying a new sniper mod and trying to find anything about Lunaria Shepard in the databases. For some reason, her records disappeared and the only ones on file are her time in the Alliance, which didn't last long, and even that information ends abruptly. It was like she was MIA or KIA, but that was a lie he's been chasing her for months now, and even the Council knows it's her. So where the hell was her information? Did the Shadow Broker remove her information? 

Garrus groans in frustration and gave up for the day. Leaving the Spectre office after ordering his gun mod, Garrus made his way to the presidium commons. It was a beautiful place filled with all walks of life. 

Taking a swing of his drink he watches the cars go by a small sigh leaving his mouth. 

“Garrus? Garrus! Hey!” He turned to see Kaira, a female Turian with pretty pink colony lines and a pale hide; he and the guys would always tease her about looking so feminine when he was a younger officer. It was more fun for her though as she would kick their asses, not his of course. He remembered when she had a crush on him, but that has changed which he’s okay with.

“Hey.” She places her hand on her waist giving him a scolding look. Her mandibles flare clearly in anger.

“Just ‘hey’, seriously Garrus did becoming a Spectre suck the life out of you?” He chuckles. 

“No, just wondering how I am going to do my next job.” She stares at him giving him a confused Turian expression before taking a seat.

“Do you need our help? What is this job of yours?”

“It’s classified.” She rolls her eyes her subharmonics disappointed.

“Of course it is.” 

“How’s the bond-mate? You both are bonded yes?” Garrus asked changing the subject. Before she can answer a manlier voice answers for her.

“No, she won’t accept my love Garrus. We have been together for two years now and she won’t let me bond with her.” Chellick spoke. Garrus gave a Turian greeting as Chellick sat down. 

“It’s a big commitment! I want to make sure! Bonding is very intimate and special, and although if things don’t work out we can always get it removed…painfully. I want it to work out.” Kaira was looking Chellick in the eyes taking his hand. Garrus looked away, jealously seeping into him, and it was just painfully cringy. 

“I love you Kaira and will wait for you no matter how much I whine, I just want you to know.” Garrus was about to make his presents known when their two human friends came along.

“If it isn’t our favorite bad boy Turian Spectre. Still taking names and kicking ass?” Lamont grins taking a seat, Ridgefield taking the other unoccupied seat. 

“As always, but one just keeps slipping away.”

_He thrusts in and out as her slippery wet core squeezes him._

Damn it Garrus not now! 

“Is this the _one that got away_ ,” Lamont sang, Kaira gave a groan and Ridgefield chuckles. Chellick grins and gave a small applause. 

“You’re getting better at this Lamont.” 

“Please don’t encourage him hon.” Garrus chuckles at Kairas disdain. 

“Is that how you get all the ladies Lamont?”

“Oh yeah, just a few days ago I tried a Salarian female.” They all looked at him shocked or was it horror. “It was an interesting experience, and I wouldn’t mind giving details.”

“How does it work?” Chellick asked.

“SO! The female you have been chasing for some time now. Lena? Lona? Li…nda?” Kaira gave him begging eyes.

“Her name is Lunaria Shepard, and she got away again. I would connect the dots to find her. Sometimes I am wrong other times I am right, but she’s not the priority anymore.”

“Oh, and what is?” Chellick the every curious Turian asks.

“Classified,” Both Kaira and Garrus said in illusion. 

“Oh, I see. Still, trying to find your bond-mate? What about Iika?” Kaira slaps Lamont against the head and started to argue with him as he was fake crying about how it hurts; Chellick was being the middle man trying to get them to stop.

Ridgefield turns his attention at Garrus as the trio were having their moment. He had a faraway look on his face full of emptiness.

“You okay?” Garrus snaps out of it and looks over towards him. He chuckles.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Don’t mind me.” Ridgefield was quiet the trio still hasn’t calmed down.

“I know how it feels to be rejected Garrus. There is this Asari, and her name is Illia. She’s in her matron years and I asked her to be with me, but she said no.” Garrus stares at him. “I asked her why. She told me she was tired of humans using her for their sexual desire. It hurts for her to think that way of me, but I’m not going to give up.” The others finally calm down and Kaira was the first to talk.

“You can’t force it, Eddy.” He laughs.

“I know, but I can see it in her eyes though. She loves me. I just have to prove to her that she is more than a sexual desire for me.” Garrus took another swing of his drink closing his eyes.

“It’s not like that Ridgefield. I wasn’t rejected.” A hand touches him.

“Then you guys just weren’t compatible? If so you can just get it removed. I know bonding removal is painful, but…maybe you should do it? I mean you are with Iika, right?” Kaira gave him eyes full of pity, he hated that. Pulling his hand away he begins to stand up. Chellick grabs him and he sighs.

“She just trying to be nice Garrus don’t act like that to her.” Pushing his hands off him Garrus starts to leave.

“Yeah come on man. Don’t be like that!” Lamont got up they were trying to get him to stay.

“Why don’t you just let her go?” Kaira asks. Garrus shook his head.

“I need to head to my apartment for somethings and start my mission.” Karia stands in front of him; her hands holding him still.

“Iika is in love with you Garrus! This is serious. You need to let this woman go.” Garrus groans closing his eyes and running his hand on his fringe.

“I don’t want to let go alright.”Kaira gave him sad sounds using her subharmonics.

“Alright. Fine. So I guess you and Iika are not in a relationship. Can you at least tell us who is this mystery woman is then?” Kaira questions him. Garrus gave a sigh taking her hands off him. 

“I don’t know who she is, and I’ve been trying to figure it out for a while now.” He finally admits. Kaira looked at him with her mouth open to say something, but Garrus held his hand up to stop her from saying anything.

“It happened two and a half years ago that’s all I know. When it comes to her everything becomes a blur. I…I planned on getting this mark removed many times, but I just don’t want to. It’s…important to me, it’s a past I don’t want to let go at least not yet. Iika, she’s great, but I don’t love her nor do I want to bond with her, so I’ve been using this to…well…keep her at bay” Ridgefield gave a hmm and thought to himself; while Kaira started feeling bad for Iika.

“Nothing at all Garrus? Maybe you remember the race? Maybe it was human? If so hair color, eye color, skin tone? Come on you were a great detective back then.” Chellick asks. Garrus tries to think but came up blank. 

“All I remember is walking to the bar to celebrate with friends, I was drinking and enjoying myself. There was a woman, but she appears as a silhouette in my mind. It’s also clear that she is human. I know that we went to a hotel room to sleep together. I remember everything we did, but she still remains a silhouette. So I have no clue who she is; and I’ve become obsessed with figuring it out.” 

“You said you wanted to keep Iika at bay?” Kaira whispers sadly looking at him. Garrus looks down guilty.

“Look…I told her upfront about how I view things. I told her I can’t fall in love with her.”

“Can’t or won’t?” Garrus sighs. 

“I won’t fall in love with her. I am a broken man with a shit past and everything I love or care about dies in the end. So what’s the fucking point? She’s…in love with me, yes and I realized it’s wrong to be with her like this. Even told myself to get this mark removed so I can settle with her, but instead, I keep walking the opposite way each time from the hospital like my body has a mind of its own. Honestly, I’m just not ready to let the mark go. I lost everything the night after we had sex and so I refuse to lose this one thing that makes me feel somewhat happy.” He felt weak, but it was the truth. 

Kaira sighs and pats his arm, “Okay, let me just say. Settling is a big no, and I am sorry for getting upset for Iika. I didn’t know your feelings until now. You have been such a closed book lately Garrus.”

“Yeah well, lately I’ve been pretty unhappy and dead inside so there isn’t much to read. Honestly, I feel undeserving of happiness.” He can see them again, the ghosts. They were glaring at him angrily.

_‘How come they died, but I get to live. It’s not fair.’_

“Hey! You deserve happiness! Everyone does!” Karia shouts at him.

“I agree! You never know when happiness will bite your Turian hard ass! Hey, maybe it will get that stick out of it!” Lamont shouts, causing the other patrons to give him a look of annoyance.

“Happiness can come in the form of anything Garrus. Are you sure nothing has made you happy? Of course besides the memory of the mark.” Chellick asks.

“When I kill mercs, and not just any mercs but the ones in the top three gangs: Blue Suns, Eclipse, Blood Pack. I get this satisfied or happy feeling, but usually, it goes away.”

“Alright, that’s a lot to unpack. I would say that’s not actual happiness, more like a drug. You’re getting a ‘high’, which means you are feeling happy instead of being happy. When someone is being happy, they usually are content, satisfied. For example, when I am with Illia I feel happy and satisfied.” Ridgefield explains.

“Love isn’t the only thing that can make you happy Ed. Do you know what makes me happy Garrus? Women, not in the love sense like big Ed here, but the fucking sense.” Lamont stats while giving the motion of humping the air.

“Spirts Anthony you are disgusting. Garrus please don’t listen to him. I don’t think love or women or killing for that matter, is going to bring you this happiness. Maybe after this mission it's time to learn to live in the present and not in the past or the future. I know how much you like holding onto things. Things that are negatively impacting you.” When Kaira said this she sat down and waited for his response. He didn't say anything just thought about what she said.

_'Live in the present'_

After a moment Garrus nods and gives them thanks for their advice. After some more pushing, he decides to stay and enjoy the friends in the present instead of the ghosts from the past or the lady in the future.

*************************************

Garrus left his friends after hours of relaxing with them and is now laying in the bed of his quiet apartment. He still wasn’t ‘happy’, but it was nice to be around them again. Kaira mentions therapy, and he laughed at her. His father would be disappointed in learning his eldest son needs therapy. To need therapy was to be considered weak.

_“You are a Turian Garrus, not some weak Human.”_

No, he wasn’t a Human; but why does everything feel so heavy. Sometimes it’s hard to get out of bed knowing it’s just going to be the same damn thing every day. He could feel them staring at him again. Turning over in his bed he tries to ignore them, but his body felt weighted. He kept his eyes closed hoping the feeling would past so he could rest in the abyss he calls dreaming. It didn’t. 

Sitting up in his lonely apartment he glares at the ghosts looking at him. Waiting.

“Just leave me alone!” He picks up a picture of his family ready to throw it at them but stops shortly looking at his sister.

_‘Solana’_

Opening up his Omni-tool he decides to call his sister, hoping she would distract him from this personal hell.

“Hnng…Hey,” He hears her give a small yawn before looking through the camera at him. He gives her a Turian hello and she responds with her own.

“Did I wake you?” She takes a deep breath and gives him a small smile. 

“No.” Garrus gives her a knowing look and she laughs quietly. “Yeah, but it’s okay. How are you Garrus? You seem shaken.” 

“I’m doing alright, just wanted to call see how you are.” She closes her eyes and takes another deep breath trying to wake up, he hears movement. 

“I am alright. Soon this will be over and I can begin my dream job of becoming a doctor.” 

“Dr. Vakarian. Has a nice ring to it.” She giggles softly before she finally grew quiet. Her eyes downcast telling a different story Garrus could tell she’s concerned.

“I want to be able to help mom. Create a cure maybe.” He nods swallowing hard. His mother has Corpalis Syndrome a rare disease that causes severe neurological degeneration in Turians. It was hard on his family learning of this. His mother kept telling them it was going to be okay, but it never was. She kept getting worse and worse until now she is bedridden with machines keeping her alive. It was only a matter of time and they all knew it. 

_‘Everything I love…dies.’_ He thought. 

He felt upset and responsible for this problem. Why was he cursed? Why does this have to happen to him?! It was quiet for a moment before he finally spoke.

“I’m sorry Sol.” She looks at him for a moment not knowing what to say. Looking at his sister causes him to feel guilty. He wanted to run away again before his curse reaches her as well; but then he remembers the first time he ran away. 

_“You Left Me!” Turians cannot cry, nor can they sweat. But if they could she would be right now. Instead, she gave a sound that broke him, and it made him feel worthless. Guilty._

_“I’m sorry Sol, forgive me” he reached out, but she slapped his hand away._

_“Sorry? Sorry!? Saying sorry won’t just magically fix this Garrus! You LEFT! I know you and dad had your differences, but you were always there for me. Mom is DYING! And you abandon us!?”_

_“Solana, please understand. I didn’t want to! I just couldn’t take it anymore after Mayre.” He begged her to understand and to see his point of view. She was having none of it._

_“I. Don’t. Care! You were my best friend! MY BIG BROTHER! You were the only one who kept me strong through moms’ illness, through…through everything! And then you disappeared! Not only did you disappear you…you called…years later…you.” She gasps her mandibles shaking voice getting lower. “You called to say goodbye. You were go…going t..to.” He reached out wanted to hold her in his arm. He kept saying he was sorry over and over through his subharmonics. She stepped away from him shaking her head. “Le..leave me alone.”_

_“Sol…” he called out using his voice and his subharmonics, but nothing could stop her from leaving him, she was gone._

“Gaaarrrusss!” he blinks back to see her smiling.

“Sorry Sol was thinking.”

“Oh yeah, I know. Brooding as always like this” She makes a face trying to mimic him. When she stops they broke out in laughter. He loves her laughs and he was glad to hear it again at any time. He knows she’s trying to cheer him up, knows that he was thinking about that day.

_'Come on Garrus live in the present. She doesn't hate you now'_

“Hey brooding is the new mysterious, and women love it. There was this one time…”

“Ew stop right there sir, I’m going to have to ask you to remain silent.” They both laugh. She yawns and he chuckles.

“Hey, I’m going to head to bed, and let you sleep.” He fakes a yawn.

“Yeah, yeah trying to get rid of me.” He can see her eyes were close when saying that, he internally laughs as he watches her head bobbing.

“Of course! Once you start talking you never shut up.” She gasps placing her hand on her chest with her eyes slightly open looking at him.

“Who said that?” He smiles.

“Night Sol, I love you.”

“Getting soft on me Garrus. Who is this and where is my brother imposter!” she giggles before looking at him. “I love you too. Night.” 

His mandibles twitch happily and went to sleep. It felt good to live in the present. 

*********************

The next night Garrus was walking to Chora’s Den. It was his last night on the Citadel and he decided to relax with his friends. As Garrus was making his way to Chora’s Den he thought of Kaira's thoughts on them, mainly Chellick, going to a gentlemen club.

_‘I wonder if Kaira is going to be happy about this.’_

He didn’t think about it for too long when he notices a Human who is a much older man say her name.

“Shepard, I have shit to do can this be quick?” He wears a yellow armor that has been through a lot, but Garrus can tell he wasn’t Eclipse. When he spoke it reminded him of Ridgefield, just raspier.

_“Look Zaeed, I need you to get some information from Fist. I know you are contracted to kill him; but if you can do me this solid that would be great.”_

“You can’t get that shit on your own? Why the hell you need my goddamn help?” He can hear the groan coming from the com.

_“I swear to fuck Zaeed. Just do this for me! Most likely once you kill him the data will be wiped. You own me this, remember what I did for you fucker!”_

“You kiss your mother with that mouth Shepard?” He spat. “If so I would happily trade places.”

 _“I am going to rip your balls off and shove it into your throat if you DARE repeat that.”_

“I like to see you try.” He glares back. Garrus hears Shepard take a deep breath and finally spoke.

 _“Zaeed something went wrong on Omega, I need to see if my sister and the good doctor is ok. Please, PLEASE can you get the information from Fist once you are done with him? You will be compensated I promise.”_

_‘Sister? She has a sister?’_ He thought as he listens to the conversation taking in the information. 

“See was that so Goddamn hard? You know sometimes being nice can take you far Shepard.” She grunts and Garrus wonders how much longer until she flies straight here and tries to kick this Human’s ass.

_“Look, I will transfer the program to your Omni-tool. All you have to do is place it near the computer and it would do the work for you. See you soon Zaeed.”_

“Fine. Oh, and Shepard.”

_“What?”_

“That offer still stands for your mother.”

 _“I AM GO-”_ he hangs up and laughs.

“Goddamn woman.”

Once he was out of sight Garrus walks out from the shadows and stares at where the man, Zaeed, was standing. Remembering his mission about Maelon and figuring out Shepard is a Shadow Broker agent; he concludes he's going to need her information and help with this problem. Thinking about the Genophage and how it could impact the galaxy if it was cured made Garrus finally realize it’s time to put aside their prey and predator game.

Using his Omni-tool he told his friends he would not be joining them and heads back to his apartment to pack with this new information in mind.

Shepard has a sister, and she’s heading to Omega.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, these notes are for answering questions I believe would be raised by readers. Feel free to leave a question and I would make sure to answer them when I am free.
> 
> Zaeed?  
> So this part was supposed to be with Wrex, but I wanted him in this story for other reasons that fit better. If he seems OOC I am sorry.


	7. John Shepard Shuffle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meet John Shepard and his amazing dance moves

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: This chapter contains slight cannibalism. Do not panic it is only a line barely an inconvenience.

Luna walks into her mother's room on the ship with her mouth closed and eyes looking down. 

She was depressed.

Today was the day that is meant to be her father's official death. When he died it was never recorded, so her mother had to improvise. 

_“My name is John Shepard and this is my favorite home in the galaxy,”_

She looks up to see her mother staring at the computer screen.

Laena was trying not to outright scream begging for her beloved. Her heart was racing and she can feel her biotics going haywire. Unlike Luna, she has more control over her biotics, but that was because the drug the Batarians used wasn’t used on her as heavily as it was on the children, such as Luna, during their time as slaves.

Noticing her biotics going out of control Laena stops the vid and looks up at Luna. Not saying a word she stands up and heads to the bed laying down feeling tired. 

Luna stares at her mother and bit her lips. So many years have passed, but the pain is still there never wavering. Walking over to the desk Luna turns over to a picture of her mother and father that was saved by Karin; and she almost cried. 

They were on the beach during their honeymoon; his arms were wrapped around her mother and they looked so happy, so complete.

“Two halves of a whole.” Dr. Chakwas would say. 

**************************************

The first time they met was during Laena's college years. She was so stressed out about her finals and her best friend Karin saw this. With time to spare and stress needed to disappear, they went out to drink. A few drinks in and Laena was still stressed until a tall, handsome man with blue eyes and black hair walked in. He was with others and was clearly from the Alliance.

“Must be getting his degree to get a higher rank,” Karin states noticing her friend staring. Laena blushes and looks away.

“I didn’t know the Alliance requires it.”

“They don’t but it does make things faster. Oh look he's staring now.” Laena twists her head too fast that she almost gave herself whiplash. Karin was right the blue-eyed man was staring. “This is like the start of a bad romantic comedy.” She laughs and Laena glares at her friend. 

“I have no time for romance Karin I need to focus on my finals! If I want to be a famous scientist in this galaxy romance is not in the picture.” Karin rolled her eyes and took a swing of her favorite drink, serrice ice brandy.

“Definitely a bad romantic comedy. Or just a horrible cliché of a bad boy with a good girl? Nerdy girl with the popular boy?” She burst of laughing as Laena side-eyed her. 

It wasn’t until he started to dance they both were stunned into silence.

“Oh…my…God” Laena just couldn’t look away. It was like watching sky cars crashing into each other.

“If you and this man ever get together. I am disowning you as my best friend.” He suddenly was looking at her again smiling as if he was the best dancer ever. When he winked at her Laena couldn’t take it anymore and burst out laughing so hard she started to snort. Embarrassed when people looked her way she shot up and ran out of the bar leaving Karin who was still laughing. 

While outside she was waiting for Karin sitting on one of the campus benches facing away from the bar. When she heard footsteps.

“Karin I swear if you say this is how a bad romantic comedy start I will be the one disowning you!” A burst of non-Karin laughter made her spin around from the bench to see the dancing man.

“Bad Romantic Comedy huh? I sure hope it ends well.” Her eyes were as big as dinner plates. She wanted to die right there.

“I…God…” She couldn’t say anything and he smiles brightly.

“I’m glad to have made you laugh. You looked pretty stressed and we can't have that. At least I can't.” When he took a seat next to her she bit her lip and grabbed her knees not looking at him.

“I am so sorry….that was so embarrassing.” He laughs and she wanted to go deep underground. 

“Hey, just embrace it! I found it cute just like how you found my dancing endearing.” He wiggles his eyebrows at her; she couldn’t hold her laughter and snort again.

“Oh my God!” She tried to stop snorting as she laughs, but she couldn’t stop. He didn’t mind as he joined in on the laughing. When they finally settle down he looked at her and grinned.

“I love to dance, even though my friends make fun of me. Seeing a pretty woman such as yourself looking so down I thought I could, you know, shoot my shot and see if you would like it. After all, it's been said I am an amazing sniper” He winks and she giggles.

“I…yes I was very stressed thank you for…the dance.” She smiles.

“So…my name is John Shepard, you?” 

“Nice to meet you John, Laena Williams.” 

********************************

“My name is John Shepard and this is my favorite home in the galaxy,” John announced while on his Omni-tool recording the kitchen surrounding.

“Oh yeah? Well, it better be the only home in the galaxy,” he moved the recording and pointed it at his wife, Laena Shepard. He smiled at her beauty and snuck up behind her arms wrapping around her waist and bent to whisper in her ear as she stirred the pot of food.

“Well, there is this one place on Earth, or was it a starship?” Laena stopped stirring and cocked her head to the right side-eyeing him.

“Oh yeah? Guess I should finally tell you the truth.”

“And that is?”

“This baby is actually David’s.” He gasps.

“Damn, does that mean I have to fight him to the death? Or maybe I can talk to Kaylee…hmm,” She giggled and went back to cooking.

“Your horrible Johnny,” He kissed her head and rest his head on hers. Turning off the recording he grinned and started to kiss her neck, his hand sliding behind the apron to pull her dress up.

“You know Laena, they say sex can do wonders for pregnant women.” He whispered after getting his hands into her panties, she moaned as he rubbed her sensitive bud.

“J...John, I’m cooking.” He didn’t reply stinking a finger inside of her. Until the pot went flying falling to the ground. They split apart.

“Shit! You okay baby?” Her face was hot and she was biting her lips but nodded making him sigh in relief. 

“Well, there goes dinner.” He chuckled and started to clean up as she takes a seat her legs tired from being seven months pregnant. It didn’t take long for John to starts dancing trying to entertain her. 

“Check out my moves Lala.” Her eyes grew wide before she starts laughing.

“Oh my God, this again? And you know I hate when you call me Lala!” She was laughing so hard tears were coming from her eyes as he continues to dance.

“Come on, Lala, this is the John Shepard Shuffle! Gets all the ladies.” He grins moving his hips.

“Honey, can I just go on the record to say, I hope our daughter doesn’t have your moves.” He busted out laughing.

“OH! I am going to teach our daughter these moves just you wait. She going to get all the guys, who I am going to kill, looking her way.” As she laughed harder, but suddenly stopped and lets out a gasp, which makes him stop. “Laena?”

She got up and ran away, “Oh my God I’m peeing on myself.” He tries to hold his laughter but ultimately breaks.

**********************************

John Shepard is an Alliance Captain as well as an N7 and hopes to eventually become an admiral, but John is also a husband and a soon to be father. This made things difficult having to choose between work and family was not easy. He wasn’t happy about it, but sometimes tough choices need to be made. Such as leaving your very pregnant wife to defend against Batarian slavers who decided to cause problems with Human colonies.

This means Laena was pissed as she watches her husband pack up to go on this mission for the Alliance. John didn’t look at her, he knows already but continues to pack.

“I can’t believe you. I can’t believe this! How can you choose the Alliance over your own family!?”

“Laena can you just understand. Being captain is important I need to do this for Humanity. It also keeps things safer here on Mindoir. Batarians are a huge issue here and the Council isn’t doing much help.” She pushes him, but he continued to pack not looking at her.

“They gave you time off so you can be with me and your daughter! I’m nine months pregnant John! She can come any minute now!” His jaw was shut tight and he sighs. Missing his unborn daughter's birth weighed heavily on him, but what can he do? Ignore the threat? What if they came to Mindoir then what?

“I'll be back on time, it’s just for a few days I promise.” She growls.

“I promise? Fuck you, John.” She kept eyeballing him hoping he would stop packing and stay. He has an obligation to his family. When she saw him walk out the door she held her breath and tears. He looks back with a frown.

“Please baby you know I love you and I want to make sure everything is safe and sound for our family. Please, don’t make me choose.” She didn’t move instead she looked away out the window of their home. She feels him staring at her until he was gone. Watching him leave with David, who gave her a sad smile and wave, made her sob and fall onto the bed once he was gone.

“It's ok Lulu I would always be here for you I promise.” Rubbing her stomach she begins to hum and sing Luna’s Lullaby to calm the moving baby inside of her and the singing helped her as well.

**************************

“But I don’t want a sister!” Luna screams throwing a tantrum and her mother groans throwing her arms in the air in defeat. 

“I give up, John you deal with this.” Laena walks out of the room trying to stop her headache that is forming. John just chuckles and picks up Luna throwing her on his shoulder.

“Alright, big girl let’s go!” Luna giggles as they made their way outside of the house. He didn’t put her down just kept walking the giggling Luna stops and just lays there on her father’s shoulder. 

“I don’t want to sister daddy. What if she takes you away from me?” He laughs.

“No one is taking us away from you baby girl.”

“You say that now, but once she’s born you’ll never love me!”

“I’ll always love you forever and ever.”

“N7 swear!?”

He puts her down and looks her in the eyes. Getting down to her level he smiles.

“Of course N7 swear! Alliance honor!” Her eyes beam as she hugs him tightly jumping up and down.

“Can I swing daddy? Please please pleaseeeeee” He chuckles and flexes his muscles. She jumps up and starts to swing with her arms.

Luna was asleep in his arms when he enters their home. Laena was reading a book, after turning a page she looks up and smiles.

“Hey, has she finally calm down?” He grins and kisses her cheek.

“Yeah, just had to N7 swear I’ll always love her.” She quietly gasps.

“N7 swear? That’s like the highest swear baby, you sure you can do it?” He almost burst out laughing but held it in since his daughter is sleeping. 

“Oh I know I can do it, just like this.” He starts to dance his famous moves and Laena bit her tongue. The man always knows how to make her laugh.

“Go away!” She whispers almost breaking. 

“Not until you dance with me.” Laena closes her eyes and shook her head.

“If I can’t see it, it’s not there.” He kept dancing though as the smile on her face grew wider and wider.

“You know you want to baby, come on dance with the master.”

“John! I N7 swear if you don’t put our daughter to bed!” She was trying greatly to not laugh only little sounds were heard until she snorted. He couldn’t help himself and burst out laughing, her alongside him. Laena’s eye grew wide but settled when she noticed Luna was still very much asleep.

“Okay got you to laugh I can go now.” She glares at him and returns to her book. When he came back he sat on the couch next to her and smiled at her seductively.

“You know Laena, they say sex can do wonders for pregnant women.” She put her book down and straddled him. 

****************************

“Laena!” John burst through the door of their home in a frenzy.

“John? What’s going on?” Laena asks her eyes wide in fear as she holds their daughter in her arms.

“Daddy!” Luna runs to him and he picks her up holding her tight.

“It’s okay Lulu I’m here. Laena its Batarians…they are attacking we need to get out of here.” 

He said in a rush breathing heavily. Grabbing what little they could they ran outside to find a way off Mindoir. People were screaming and getting executed as Batarians took control of the colony. 

“Daddy we forgot midnight!” John looks at her with a sad expression.

“Midnight is going to be okay baby.” Luna quietly sobs thinking of her black cat.

John held his pistol in hand and cursed under his breath when he saw one of the Batarians shoot a child in their face and grabbed a woman dragging her off somewhere. 

“John, why are they attacking? This isn’t supposed to happen.”

“I don’t know I never thought the Batarians would get to us. I know a place where we could hold out for the Alliance to come and save us.”

“O…Okay.” She held her pregnant stomach and winces, this made John look at her in fear.

“Are you okay?”

“Y…yeah we’re ok. She’s just scared. We’re all scared, John.” Taking her chin in his hand he kissed her lips.

“Don’t worry we’re going to be just fine.” Laena wasn’t an idiot she knew he said it just for her to be calm. As they traveled they saw their neighbor Kyle wave to them.

“This way!” He calls out. John smiles knowing Kyle knows the way to the safe zone, and they head over to him.

“Hey, Kyle is your family at the safe zone? We could team up and search for other surviv-” Before John can continue talking he looked ahead and his eye grew dark, they were betrayed. Standing in front of them were multiple Batarians with smug looks on their faces.

“Here he is. This is John Shepard just as you asked.” Kyle speaks fast shaking. Laena gasps looking fearful and Luna was confused. John was weighing his opinions, and it didn’t look very good.

“You did good Human.” 

“My family?” Kyle begs before getting a shot in the face. Luna cries holding onto her father for dear life as the leader smiles. John stood in front of his family feeling his blood boil.

“Stay away from them. It’s me you want, isn’t it? Take me and leave them alone.” He growls and the Batarian grins.

“I am going to have fun breaking you John Shepard.” He spat before punching him in the gut causing him to fall to the ground.

********************

“You should eat. Never know when the food would stop.” The Batarian said with a menacing grin as he watches over the other slaves within the ship. John glared at him and spit in his face. Once a pretty large man now so skinny the wind can kill him. Eyes were black around the edges and he struggled to move at times, the ligaments in his joints were gone and it was just painful.

The Batarian opened the cage and Laena holds Luna tightly. She wanted to protest, wanted to say something; but John gave her a look that said no.

Seeing the state of his family hurts. Laena looked tired, she was shaking, and there was blood coming from under her. He clutched his teeth and tries not to say anything. He didn’t want her to be hurt anymore.

He was suddenly punched in the head and the other humans around him moved out of the way. Luna sobs trying to reach out to him, but Laena held her down closing her eyes and singing her lullaby.

“Daddy! No! You’re hurting him! Stop!” She was crying begging for them to stop. Laena held her even more tightly rocking her from side to side as the beating continued.

*******************

John almost did it. He almost got control of this shitty hell! He was ALMOST there! He formed a rebellion to get the hell out and it would have paid off if he wasn’t betrayed again. The same shit happened with Kyle and for it to happen again made him want to fucking kill every single Human here. John never cries. His father taught him to never show fear and weakness to the enemy, but right now he was desperate and going insane. 

His daughter was being experimented on. His wife was being tortured and raped. Two years of this shit and the Alliance still haven’t found them. He was hopeful in the beginning, but now he felt like he was in a dark abyss trying to get out. Despair was getting to him. 

He was broken. 

He heard her singing and his eyes met hers. The sound pulled him out of his despair. She was still beautiful even if she was skinner and her dark skin was pallor. John still loves his Laena. 

Crawling over to her he kisses her head and she looked at him, a smile on her beautiful face.

“Hey, you.” She whispers in the dark.

“Hey.” His body was on fire from the drugs they gave him, but he persevered. John Shepard isn’t going to die that easily. 

“I…love you, John.” His throat tightened and he tried not to cry.

“I love you to Lala,” She smiles at the nickname, he remembers how much she hates it.

“I wish we could watch her grow you know? Just watch her get out there and show the world, Lunaria Shepard.” She was going to cry and John stares at her.

“Don’t cry.” She shakes closing her eyes trying to hold the tears.

“I…I can’t fight it anymore John. This is all too much. After losing our baby I can’t breathe I am sinking. Two years John since losing her…two years.” She wanted to be strong, needed to be strong.

“Yes you can Laena, you are strong. Please don’t cry, please don’t give these Batarians,” he spat “the satisfaction of seeing you broken.” She starts to hum.

“John…”

“Promise me Laena you would never make them see you cry.” She bites her lips looking at her sleeping daughter.

“I promise.” A chewing sound was heard and they turn their heads. A mother was eating her son, because of the drugs in his system he either he didn’t feel it or he was dead, but he wasn’t crying out as she bit into him.

Laena held Luna closer.

**************************

A Batarian guard came inside a smile of his face looking at John. It has been four years of this torture with no end in sight and John was too weak to fight as the Batarian gave him a shot of the drug.

Hot

Pain

He didn’t scream just coughed and looked down not wanting Laena or Luna to see. The Batarian watched as he fought

Hot

Pain

He was now visibly shaking. Lunaria reaches for him.

“Daddy?” Blood was then spilled from his mouth onto her face; she became petrified. Laena instantly begins to hum to Luna which she then received a slap to the face.

“Shut up!” Laena kept singing and before he can slap her again John grabs the guard’s arms.

“St...ay…away…fr…om…my…fa…mly” He growls and the guard starts to beat him, punching and choking. When he was done he left, and John lays there unable to get up. Laena takes him in her lap and Luna just stares wide-eyed tears running down her face. He was breathing heavily now the pain running wild in his body. 

“Let go, John, its ok…we…we’re going to be okay. I N7 swear.” She whispers, and he looks at her his bloody hand on her face. She smiles softly at him.

“M...y…Lala…Lov...e” Is all he gets out before he stops breathing his blue eyes losing the light that was in them. She kisses his lips and softly sang.

**********************

Laena was holding Luna from behind breathing normally and Luna was resting, not sleeping. Her mother said they needed him to have a day so they can mourn. 

They usually stay inside their rooms or each other rooms during this day and the crew understands. The Shadow Broker mysteriously contacts her before or after this day and she didn’t notice until the third year of working for him. 

A sob was heard.

Luna didn’t move and her mother picks herself up and cries. Crying wasn’t much something her mother does, but when she does it takes a while for her to calm down. 

“John…” She sobs out and Luna closes her eyes lips tight as she remembers his face and his arms that she loved to swing on as a kid. Silent tears fall on her face.

“Oh, John….” Her mother sucks in a breath trying not to be so loud, but Luna can tell she is failing. 

“You…I…why?” She felt her punch the bed and Luna finally turns around to see her mother still crying. They stare at one another before they both are sobbing together. 

“I just want…to see him again…” Luna begs, shaking. Laena nods and stands up walking towards the computer with Luna. She clicks a file called ‘John Shepard’ and they begin to watch old recordings that were saved from the invasion.

_John finished setting up the drone and grins in front of it._

_“Okay…and…set! Laena! Are you ready for the greatest moves?” She gave him an annoyed look as she sat on the couch watching vids on her Omni-tool._

_“John, I am not in the mood. Luna wouldn’t let me sleep last night.”_

Luna giggles softly through tears and whispers a sorry and Laena kisses her on top of the head. 

_John looks at the drone and grins while winking at it. “You see how mad you made your mama Lulu? Now here is how you make her smile.” He whispers while looking back at her for a moment and grins. “Watch the master at work”_

_John started to do his famous moves, ‘The John Shepard Shuffle’, and Laena fought against her smile. It wasn’t too long before she starts laughing._

“Luna you were a pain in the ass always sitting on my bladder and keeping me up.” Her mom laughs through the tears.

“I’m sorry mom!” Luna giggles watching her mother laugh right now was contagious. She suddenly saw a different video and gasp quickly clicking it.

_John was using his video drone. While it follows him walking over to Luna._

_“You need to promise not to tell your mama.” Luna was drawing when she looks up into his Omni-tool with a smile._

_“I promise daddy!”_

_“N7 swear Luna this is important!” She jumps up and solutes._

_“I N7 swear daddy!” He chuckles._

_“Okay now watch me, baby girl.” He starts to dance slowly teaching Luna the steps and she giggles mimicking him._

_“I’m home! And I bought something for my little moon.” Laena walks in and John rushes to greet her with a hug, kiss, and a spin._

_“My love! How are you!?” She gave him a suspicious look and stares at the recording drone._

_“John what did you do?”_

_“Nothing my Lala.” She rolls her eyes at the nickname before looking at Luna who was messing with the box curiously. A meowing sound was heard from it._

_“Lulu if you tell me what daddy did you can open the box.” John gasps!_

_“How can you bribe our daughter like that Lala!” Luna covers her mouth and shakes her head. The meowing sound getting louder._

_“Lulu don’t you want to see what’s inside.” Luna’s eyes grew wide._

_“N7 swear Luna.” She started to jump up and down as the meowing kept going. Until she started to dance. Laena looked in horror and John broke down laughing._

_“John! No! Not our daughter! Not the John Shepard Shuffle!”_

_“From now one it’s called the Shepard Shuffle. Let’s go baby” As he dances trying to make her dance. Luna opens the box to see a black cat jump out. It instantly took a liking to her, and she giggles._

“I miss Midnight. I wonder if he was able to get away.” Laena kisses her on the forehead.

“Midnight was a smart cat Lulu just like Archangel.”

Luna nods then rest her head on her mother’s shoulder as they click a different on.

Laena closes her eyes reminiscing, and when she opens them back she saw one video, giggles, and clicks it.

_The video starts with John using his drone with a smile on his face. Luna was on the ground watching a children’s show that features all races of the galaxy._

_“Hey, Navy daddy here. I am here to help you spell your name. N.A.V.Y”_

_“N.A.V.I” Laena calls out. This made John roll his eyes._

_“Navy” Luna looked at her father._

_“Navi” Luna looked at her mother._

_“Navy”_

_“Navi”_

_“Baby come on, I want to have her name Navy and spelled that way.”_

_“Honey, I already dislike that you want to name our second daughter Navi. The least you could do is have the name spelled with an I.” He groans._

_“You said the second one would be on me.”_

_“And it is! Her name is Navi it sounds the same!”_

_“But it's not the same!” He gave a grump face and look to his daughter, “Luna, what do you like Navy with an I or a Y?” He asks. Luna shrugs and he begins laughs._

_“I will do the dance.” He stops and looked at her with his mouth wide open._

_“Just to name our daughter Navi with an I?” She takes in a breath and nods. He turns to the camera with fake tears._

_“Let’s do it” She fumbles a bit but get the hang of it easily Laena was doing the Shepard Shuffle when their twenty-one weeks baby starts moving inside of her._

_“Oh no Navi is dancing too!” John jumps up which startling Luna and starts dancing._

_“Oh Yeah, baby that's it! Show me the moves!” Laena was laughing but kept dancing and soon Luna joins in. The three of them dancing the Shepard Shuffle._

_They both laughs as three of them kept dancing until Laena took a seat too tired to keep going, but she clapped in beat laughing and smiling as the two of them danced._

“I…I am sorry! God, dad was the worst dancer ever, and I loved it.” They couldn’t stop laughing and crying as John and Luna kept dancing even as Laena sat there clapping. Laena pauses the video and stares at his face, it was in a happy grin.

“I know that’s part of the reason why I loved him so much. We met because of his dancing, he was my…everything. I miss him so much…I honestly believe he was my soulmate.”

“Really?”

“No one can ever be John Shepard.” She was about to start crying again when Luna got up and starts to dance, ‘The Shepard Shuffle’. 

“Lunaria Shepard what are you doing!?” She gasps.

“Dancing mom!” It wasn’t long before her mother laughs.

******************

It was a few days after the mourning when she read about a plague problem in Omega, in Mordin’s district. 

“What the hell is going on?” Her first thoughts went straight to her sister “Joker!”

“Yes, Shepard?”

“I need you to head to Omega now!”

“Heading there now, but don’t you have that mission for the Shadow Broker? The one with Fist on the Citadel?”

Luna groans, “Yes, you are correct, damn it. Wait! He did say to get there before Zaeed kills him.”

“Zaeed? Why didn’t he just ask you to do it?” He pauses, “Never mind. What are you going to do?”

“I plan on convincing Zaeed to get the data for me. Just need to transfer him the program so he doesn’t need to do anything.”

“Well hopefully it works, by the way, ETA 6 hours before Omega.” She nods and starts to calls Zaeed. 

_“Shepard, I have shit to do can this be quick?”_ She grins.

“Look Zaeed, I need you to get some information from Fist. I know you are contracted to kill him; but if you can do me this solid that would be great.” 

_“You can’t do this shit on your own? Why the hell you need my Goddamn help.”_ She groans and glares at the screen. The stress of what's happening on Omega, plus the mourning of her father was getting to her, and she was just over everything.

“I swear to fuck Zaeed. Just do this for me! Most likely once you kill him the data will be wiped. You own me this, remember what I did for you fucker.”

 _“You kiss your mother with that mouth Shepard?” He spats. “If so I would happily trade places.”_ Thoughts of her father rush through her head and she became pissed.

“I am going to rip your balls off and shove it into your throat if you DARE repeat that.” Zaeed glares back at her in return, but she didn’t care. 

_“I like to see you try.”_

She took a deep breath

_‘Come on Shepard breath he’s Zaeed don’t let him get to you.’_

“Zaeed something went wrong on Omega, I need to see if my sister and the good doctor is ok. Please, PLEASE can you get the information from Fist once you are done with him? You will be compensated I promise.” She begs

 _“See was that so hard? You know sometimes being nice can take you far Shepard."_ She groans

_‘I am going to kill this man’_

“Look, I will transfer the program to your Omni-tool. All you have to do is place it near the computer and it would do the work for you. See you soon Zaeed.”

_“Wait, Shepard.”_

“What?”

_“That offer still stands for your mother.”_

“I AM GO-” he hangs up and she screams causing the glass that holds her model ships to break causing the pieces to fall onto the floor. Archangel jumps and runs into his crawl space going somewhere on the ship.

Looking at the fish tank to make sure the glass was okay she notices a crack. _Fuck_

She knows she’s being overprotective of her mother and she knows Zaeed doesn’t mean any of it, but this was horrible timing. After mourning her father this week it was just too much. She walks towards her bed and places her head in her hands. Until she was got a call from her Omni-tool.

She smiles when answering it.

“Hey, Navi.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, these notes are for answering questions I believe would be raised by readers. Feel free to leave a question and I would make sure to answer them when I am free.
> 
> You are pretty dark  
> Yes, yes I am and I hope it doesn't scare you away. I don't enjoy putting my characters through this hell, but I feel like it adds to the story. I always felt like from what I heard from Batarians in Mass Effect they reallllly hate Humans, and slavery is just brutal. It does get darker in other chapters just a fair warning.
> 
> Navi?  
> Haha from a game I love shh...


	8. Navi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Garrus goes to Omega to search for Shepard since she is the best chance at information for Maelon. He just didn't expect to meet her younger sister.

Omega was shit in the past, and Omega is shit now. 

Garrus emotionlessly glace at a sick woman dying on the floor with dry blood that seems to never go away. Men and women high on the drugs that ran rampant on the streets were still very much a problem at this station.

A man screams as he was stabbed in the neck and drops to the ground trying to hold the blood from escaping, and for what? 

Garrus shot and killed the Batarian running away from the scene. Looking at what was taken Garrus clutched his mouth. One hundred fucking credits. This piece of organic garbage killed someone for one hundred fucking credits. Garrus sucked in his breath trying not to let his anger consume him.

_‘Nothing has changed. Nothing. Everything we did and not even a dent. Fuck Omega’_

He exhaled and decided to focus on his mission. 

Looking for Shepard. 

Once he turned a corner he was greeted by a bored Batarian with an assault rifle in hand.

“You, Aria wants to see you.” Garrus rolls his eyes.

“I have things to do Aria can wait.” He coolly said, as he was trying to walk away from the Batarian, who instead stopped him by giving a warning shot near his foot. Turning around with his pistol out Garrus growled at the Batarian.

“Aria doesn’t wait. If you don’t want any issues I suggest you go to her now.” Garrus kept his mouth shut as the Batarian aim his rifle at him. As Garrus stared him down his dead team suddenly appeared standing beside the Batarian.

_‘Kill him Garrus it doesn’t matter.’_

_‘He doesn’t matter kill him’_

_“What would that do? Cause the Queen bitch to come after me. No…I won’t listen to you!”_ Garrus screams in his head.

_‘Worthless’_

_‘Just kill yourself then.’_

_‘You don’t matter’_

Garrus eyes closed and were met with red seductive eyes. Her brown lips were open and moaning his name as he fucks her raw. Suddenly she leans up and whispers to him.

_“Don’t you want to find me? Like the other times. Let’s play hide and seek. **Honey**.”_

Opening his eyes the Batarian stood there glaring at him ready to fire and Garrus puts his pistol down.

“Fine.”

************************

Each step was miserable for Garrus. Thoughts of what his team did for this station replayed rapidly in his mind.

On the street he was walking on at the moment, they were able to stop the gang wars so children can play outside without problems, families can live normally, and there were no signs of death. Now it’s full of death, no children in sight and people were looking at him suspiciously ready to pounce on him if he let his guard down for even a moment.

Getting closer to the Queen’s domain the smell of this place was starting to get to him. Chemicals, death, decay, piss, and garbage; it was all making him kind of sick. How can anyone call themselves a leader and let this happen to the place they live? Oh right…money. Credits are a source of life and if you don’t have it? Well then fuck you.

Each time his team would help out the community; the community would try to help them back in return with credits. Garrus didn’t like that; he prefers if they saved their money to help themselves. Getting credits worked out pretty well since his source of income were the gangs. Disrupting their operations, destroying their communications, killing them off, and other ways to weaken them. He took money from them and gave back to the communities while effectively supporting the team and himself.

He saw a flyer on a wall with a picture of the Archangel sign. Staring at it made him sick, and angry. 

_‘What was the point of it all?’_ He thought.

“I don’t know why you young people love staring at that thing. HE’s DEAD! Get over that shit! I keep having to take this damn thing off my wall. Whoever keeps putting it back. Archangel is DEAD!” An old Turian growls taking the flyer off and throwing it on the ground. Garrus didn’t say a word after all he was right; Archangel is dead.

Eyes were watching him, but he didn’t care. Most likely one of Aria's pets watching him. The bitch could wait, all she does is sit on her ass all day anyway.

As he kept walking to Afterlife he could still feel the eyes. Annoyed, he turned the corner and waited. When the person followed they stopped noticing he was nowhere to be found. 

Garrus appeared behind the person and pointed his pistol at the hooded person's head. Judging from the body it was a female Turian. They reacted by using their leg to kick back at him, and Garrus dodges. Using his hands he grabs her leg and pushes her forward causing her to fall on the floor on her face. She spins around and then grabs a hard object flinging it at him.

Garrus curses as it almost hit him and leans to the right so it can pass him. With him, distracted she kicks his legs causing him to fall to the ground on his knees. He growls in annoyance using his pistol to start shooting at her, but nothing came out. 

They used sabotage. 

Garrus was a bit surprised but rolls to the side as the Turian was about to punch him. With their fist connecting to the ground, Garrus stood up and stares at the Turian.

_‘They are skilled, military training skilled.’_

She rushes at him and he dodges. Using his advantage he punches her in the gut causing her to gasp for breath. Before he could get his hands on her she moved quickly and kicks him; this time he was the one gasping. Back and forth they went and Garrus was impressed by her keeping up with him. When he spotted the opening to stop this fight, he took it.

Grabbing her arm he swings and slams her against the wall with a loud thud; she falls to the ground on her back, the hood still covering her face. With her down, he pointed his pistol at her.

“Who are you?” He asks the female didn’t say anything just lay there. When he was about to shoot a loud voice stopped him.

“Don’t! Don’t shoot her!” He turns to see a human female running forward her clothes match the Turian on the ground. Garrus was still aiming at the duo as the woman gently caresses her face.

“Who are you?” He asks again and the Human female glares at him. 

“Were just trying to figure out if you are him.” Garrus glares back.

“Him who?” She sighs looking back at the Turian.

“Archangel.” After saying the old name. The female Turian groans and slowly sits herself up.

“Mellie what are you doing here? I told you I could handle this alone.” Mellie rolls her eyes and looks at the Turian concerned. 

“Handle this alone? Nyreen you almost got yourself killed!” Nyreen glares at the Human.

“Shout my name even louder please!” Pushing Mellie’s hand away from her face she turns her attention to Garrus.

“Why do you want to know who I am?” Nyreen stares at him.

“We need your help.”

“No.” He said immediately and puts his pistol away. Nyreen growls.

“Omega needs Archangel back. Since you’re back I thought maybe you can help.” 

"How do you know I am Archangel?"

"I just know alright. Are you going to help us?" She begs.

“No.” He turns around getting back to his original task. Nyreen groans and stands up.

“Omega needs you! How else are the people going to survive!?” Garrus balled his hands into a fist and turned to her.

“Let me give you some advice kid. Give up. Omega doesn’t need help. If you haven’t noticed yet nothing has changed even when I...Archangel was around.” Nyreen walked towards him and Garrus crosses his arms looking at her annoyed.

“Things have changed, you just don’t see it. You have inspired me…us to help this place, but I …we, just need some help.” Garrus shook his head and laughed at her.

“You’re nativity will get you killed. No. It would get others killed, and when that happens you’re going to realize too late how shit Omega is. How useless everything you did is. How insignificant you are in the grand scheme of thing. Worthless, that’s what you will be after you failed everyone. Hoping that one day that one bullet didn’t miss you this time. All that would be left is the dead haunting you at night telling you to kill yourself because you failed. Archangel is dead, and if you go down that path soon you will be too.” With that, he walked away and this time she didn’t follow.

Harsh

Leaving that Turian made him feel guilty. If he didn’t know what he knew he wouldn’t have been so harsh, but he wanted to get his point across. Omega was shit, and nothing will change that. The more he kept seeing nothing has changed, not even in the slightest, pisses him off.

_‘We worked so damn hard and nothing’s changed. What was the point? Their death was in vain.’_

_‘Our death meant nothing!’_

_‘Failure!’_

He sighs and ignores the loud voices in his head. Walking into Afterlife caused good flashbacks that turned sour after remembering what happened the next day. 

His mark tingled.

At least there was one good memory he can hold onto even if she disappeared the next day and he couldn’t for the life of him remember her. 

Passing by the Queen’s Batarian pyjak, who nods at him, he made his way to the Queen herself, Aria T’loak. She stood there looking over her domain eying the idiots who she reigns over. After some time, an annoyance to Garrus, she turns around looking him in the eyes.

“Tell me why a dead Turian is back on this station?” He looked at her confused. 

_'Dead Turian?'_

“I was never a dead Turian.” She scoffs and sits on her couch as he stands there.

“I’m not an idiot. Sources told me who you are, the last time you were here. My businesses were being fucked with. And I hate when my businesses are fucked with.” 

_'So she knows to huh.'_

Garrus took in a breath crossing his arms over his chest. “I did what needed to be done. Doesn’t matter anyway nothing’s change; so why bitch about it? Look, I’m not here to dig up old graves just looking for someone.” Aria glares at him standing up.

“Oh I know, and the last thing you want to do is go after this person. Whatever fucking games you fucks are playing? Stays off my station. You see this?” She opens her arms indicating to Omega. “Is mine. When that person, you want so bad, is under my roof she is under my protection. You fuck with her, you fuck with me and nobody fucks with Aria.”

_‘Shepard is under Aria’s protection?’_

Garrus stares at the old Asari, he knows his place. If her attack varrens couldn’t kill him she definitely would. 

He chuckles, “Don’t fuck with Aria huh?” She sat in her seat and narrows her eyes.

“Don’t let me repeat myself.”

“Oh, I know.” He said staring at her. The staring contest didn’t last long as Garrus walked away wanting to leave. Until her pyjak came into view glaring at him.

“Tell your pyjak to get out of my face. I won’t cause any problems.” Aria nods at him and he was let through.

Omega is shit.

************************

After dealing with Aria, Garrus felt himself gaining a headache. Not only was the smell and look of Omega making his sensitive senses hurt, but he has no clue where to look for Shepard. Judging by how things ended Aria won’t tell him anything. 

A loud shriek and then a boom was heard which caused him to turn his head to see what’s going on. He saw one Vorcha on the ground presumably dead and another one with a knife going after a young female Turian who was behind a malfunctioning YMIR.

“Come on you damn thing work!” The Vorcha was getting close as she was tugging and trying to fix the wires in a hurry.

“Turian You Die!” The Vorcha yelled out to her and she gasps ducking from his attack which caused her to fall to the ground.

Garrus notices she had no markings, she was bare-face and has brown hide with grey eyes. Judging from her height she could be between 10-13 years old, but her voice sounded older, strange.

“Don’t use your biotics, mom says. You need training, she tells me. Ugh! Where is my stun gun!?” She got off the ground and began to pat her clothes looking around frantically. Before the Vorcha can attack her Garrus shot him in the head. She screams falling to the ground looking at the dead Vorcha before turning back towards him. 

“P…please don’t kill me! If…if you do I have family members who would hunt you down and kill you!”

“I wouldn’t doubt it, but I am not going to kill you. Are you okay?” She looked at him in disbelief and fear. He sighs and puts away his gun while putting his hands up. 

“See I mean no harm.” He tries to give her a note of reassurance with his subharmonics. She doesn’t bite.

“The last Turian who said that got his ass killed. My mother knows every way on how to kill one. And don’t use your stupid sounds I won’t fall for it!” Well, this girl has been through something.

“Look I don’t have time for this. I am looking for a…uh…friend. She’s human, brown skin, red eyes.” Once he said red eyes the Turian's eyes and facial expression changed.

_‘So she knows Shepard’_

“What…do you want with her?” She hesitates.

“I just want to talk to her, I figure she has a great deal of information from the Shadow Broker and wishes to buy some off her.” The subharmonics that came from her indicated trust.

“So you know what my sister does and who she works for! I guess you are her friend.” She smiles and walks over to the YMIR mech. Garrus stops and gave her a look of confusion. 

“Sister?” The Turian narrows her eye over at him. 

“Yes…did she not tell you about me? Are you really her friend?” She starts to back up. Garrus had to act quickly.

“Oh! Sorry, she told me yes, just ‘Turian sister’ didn't sink in.” She was starting to doubt him. “Shep…uh…Lunaria said to meet her here on Omega, but she hasn’t contacted me yet.” She stuffs her hands into her pockets and glares at him suspiciously.

_‘Come on Garrus you have a younger sister yourself just earn her trust!’_

“If you are her friend why did you call her Lunaria? She usually lets friends call her Luna.” 

_‘Fuck’_

“I am a formal person, I prefer to call people by their full name or last name.” She inches her way slowly to him. He calms his beating heart knowing how to lie to a Turian. 

“Hmmm” She kept getting closer her eyes still narrow. He turns his head to the right using one of his fingers to scratch his mandible. For some reason, he felt a bit nervous. She shrugs and smiles.

“Well hello! My name is Naviana Shepard! Navi for short.” She was pretty ecstatic and naïve. “Nice to meet you uh…?”

_'Shit. Have to think quickly.'_

“Angel.”

_'Really Garrus? Can you be any more open about your past?'_

“Angel? Your name is similar to Archangel!” She claps her hands together jumping a little. His mouth clutches and he got nervous. 

“Uh yeah heard he was a big thing back then.” She placed her hands on her hips.

“Oh yeah really popular with the mercs here. He was such a big influence they practically worked together to take him down. The news really hit my sister hard; she was so sad.” Garrus looked shocked.

“Really?” 

_‘Maybe…no it can’t be.’_

“Oh yeah. She went all dark and edgy; which is unusual since the only time I saw her like that was…when…I was little I think seven or eight…and over a guy too! Just like with Archangel.” She began to ponder making sad noises. 

“How old are you? If you don’t mind me asking.” She gasps hand on her chest looking at him wide-eyed.

“I am NOT having sex with you! You're as old as my sister maybe in a few yea-”

“Whoa! No, I am not…Spirits! No!” She laughs, Garrus, on the other hand, was starting to feel overwhelmed by this Turian.

“Oh my God! You should have seen your face! If you really want to know I am sixteen years old.”

“Sixteen? You don’t look sixteen” She rolls her eyes and glares at him.

“I have a medical condition okay! It prevents me from growing the appropriate height of a female Turian! Mom calls me fun-sized so if you could not point out how short I am that would be great!” He was taken aback for a moment. This was an extremely rare case he has heard about, but never actually seen before. Until now. 

“Alright then.” When he was going to ask about Shepard her Omni-tool chimed. 

“Oh crap…I forgot about the deliveries! Angel right? My Mech is being dumb do you think you can help me with my deliveries?” Garrus sighed, Shepard would have to wait.

“Sure.”

“Great!” She claps excitedly. 

**************

Navi was very talkative and hyper and Garrus was not prepared for this. 

_‘How does Shepard deal with this?’_

Not even his sister was this hyper and he thought she was hyper. Each time they would deliver Navi would end up talking to the person she was giving medicine to for a long time. So long that he would have to remind her of the other deliveries to get her to stop talking. Other times when he was trying to ask about Shepard, she would cut him off and jump to a whole new topic.

“You should have seen the Turian chocolate cake my mother made for me on my 10th birthday. I ALMOST cried. My sister and I ate the whole thing causing use to have a stomach ache of course my mother had a slice herself. Aunty Karin was not happy about that.”

_‘They all ate a dextro cake?’_

“Wait, your mother and Sh…Luna ate Turian chocolate cake?” She grinned.

“Oh yes! It was amazing! My mother makes the best dextro food!” Shepard was human. Was their mother Turian?

“So your mother is Turian, how is it possible Sh…Luna eats dextro-amino food?” She stops in front of him and gave him a Turian annoyed sound.

“You know Mr. Angel you don’t know my sister at all, do you? Asking me questions about her…ugh. Anyway, my mother and sister are human!” Garrus was so confused.

“Humans can only eat levo-amino foods Navi.” She shook her head.

“No, don’t you get it, Mr. Angel? They are…different. They are human yes, but…” She sighs and becomes quiet, strange. He never would have thought he wanted her to be loud and hyper cutting him off as he talked, or not standing still for a moment, until now. 

“Hey…uh…come on tell me more about the cake. Or is there any other time that made you happy?” He asks trying to make her think of something good. It must have worked since she sucks her breath in and her head shot up to look at him, giggling.

“I remember this one time, Lulu and Joker…” Garrus smiles, for some reason he never wants to see her that sad again. 

It wasn’t long until they finally finished. Garrus understood what she was doing, she wasn’t just delivering medication; she was bringing life to the people. The long talks she was having with them was making them laugh and smile. She was bringing hope and joy to people here, even if it only lasts for a moment.

_“Things have changed, you just don’t see it. You have inspired me…us to help this place, but I …we, just need some help.”_

Garrus thought about that Turian, Nyreen, and felt guilty for what he said.

_‘Maybe things have changed.’_

“AND DONEEEE” She screams to no one in particular. Garrus chuckles. 

“You have an energy of one thousand dreadnoughts.” She beams at him.

“That’s what my sister said!” They laugh. She quiets down but was still beaming as the walk. 

“Thank you, Mr. Angel, for helping me today. Things were getting a little crazy at the clinic and I just needed to talk to people.” He gave her a glance seeing her happiness falter. 

“What's going on?” she sighs

“A plague. I am Immune because Dr.Solus gave me the antidote, but things are getting worse. We have been waiting for my sister and mother to come home to help with this situation since Aria doesn’t care.”

“I thought your sister is under Aria’s protection? Which would mean Luna's interests would be under protection no?” She laughs bitterly.

“Is that what she told you? No, the only thing Aria cares about is Lulu’s information.” He doesn’t understand.

“What do you mean?”

“She only cares about the information Luna feeds her. It’s supposed to help keep the clinic safe, which it does, but it doesn’t keep the community safe. I keep telling Luna that she’s not helping, but there is so much Luna can do when she all over the Galaxy chasing information for her employer and running away from this stupid Turian Spectre that won’t leave her alone. It’s like he's in love with her or something!” Garrus coughs a bit. 

“I don’t think that’s the reason. I mean he’s a Spectre he can’t love a crimi-”

“Mommy says Spectres are just high paid mercs with the Councils leash” Ouch. Damn. She shook her head. “Either way Luna helps as much she can, all the credits she sends our way gets bled out by well, Omega! This is why I miss Archangel. When Archangel was here things were finally looking up and then…they killed him.” Garrus looked forward not saying a word as he thought of his old team. Anger, regret, and finally guilt took over him.

_‘I hope we meet some mercs to kill’_

They made it to a door blocked by a Turian guard with a human woman looking pissed. 

“I am human you asshole, that means I am immune!” The Turian guard groans.

“Listen lady this is the third time today you told me this. I can’t let you through Aria’s orders. You want to get in talk to the Queen yourself.”

“Hey, Marik!” The male Turian looked at her and gave her a greeting.

“Navi! it’s good to see you. How were the deliveries? I see you don’t have your Mech with you.” She groaned.

“Yes it broke down I need to build a new one I am sure it was salvaged by now. Think you can let us in?”

“I don’t know Navi without your Mech I don’t like you going in there. Plus I don’t want your mother to kill me. You know you can stay here with me until the gunfire dies down. I'll protect you.” Garrus can hear the flirty sounds he was making indicating he has an attraction to Navi. She rolls her eyes and crosses her arms.

“Don’t worry Marik Angel here will protect me, and before you talk about him getting sick once we are at the clinic he will get his immunity shot.” Marik turns toward Garrus glaring at him.

“Angel huh? Last time we had an angel on this station they died.” Garrus glares.

“Is that so?” They were sending death threats at each other using their subharmonics and Navi was looking back and forth standing between them.

“HEY!” They looked down at her. “Stop that! Now if you can please let us through. Angel will protect me as he did during my deliveries!” Marik stepped aside.

“Find but if she gets hurt I’ll kill you.” Garrus rolls his eyes. 

Walking inside Garrus felt a wave of regret as the smell made him sick; it was worse than the station itself. He did not expect this at all.

“I know it’s not the best smell, but I can assure you it gets better the closer we get to the clinic.” She looked determined as ever. Garrus closes his eyes trying to get used to the smell.

“Don’t worry I will manage.” 

“Hey, I want to say sorry for back there. Marik has been persuading me for a while, so seeing me with any Turian male gets him on edge.” Garrus brow plates lifted in sarcastic surprise. 

“Really?” She laughs.

“Oh yeah. I swear people see a short female Turian that’s not a child and think ‘I need to protect her’ or ‘she’s so cute I must have her.’ It’s stupid. I can protect myself thank you very much. I even have implants to help with my biotics! Sure I can’t hold a gun as well as my sister, but I sure can singularity your ass off the station Theo!” Garrus chuckles.

“Theo?” She laughs and looks at him.

“Sorry, he’s an ex.”

The travel wasn’t so bad. The Mercs were, in Garrus' opinion, the best part even if his chest hurts and he can’t stop coughing. Killing the Blue Sons and Blood Pack mercs gave him his high. Sadly, this plague was getting more toxic the longer he stays here. He was coughing horribly while they were under fire and Navi looks at him scared. 

When he was about to lean up and aim Navi pulled him down.

“You can’t fight anymore. Let me handle it.” He shook his head.

“No, I’m fine.” She rolls her eyes.

“Stubbornness is going to get you killed.” Her hands started to glow blue and she stands using shockwave towards the enemies. He then watches as she pulls a large canister and throws it at them with her biotics. 

“Shoot at it!” She yells shaking. He gathers the strength and uses his pistol to shoot at the canister blowing up the Mercs. She sat down for a moment taking deep breaths.

“That was…good. Nice going.” She nods and stands up.

“Yeah…thanks come on let's go, and don’t worry Mr. Angel we’re getting closer.” 

It wasn’t long before another coughing was heard and they saw a Batarian sitting there. Navi rushes over with her Omni-tool ready. Garrus narrows his eyes he can feel a lot of hate coming from her subharmonics. 

“How does it feel? Is it just coughing right now or is there pain? Can you stand after I give you some medi-gel?” She gave some to him and he finally stopped coughing, but he couldn’t stand. 

“Too…weak…” She looks at Garrus hoping he can help and he shook his head.

“I…do... _cough_...don't think I can carry him and…myself to the clinic.” She nods.

“Listen, Batarian. We are heading to the Clinic, and once we’re there we would send for help okay?” The Batarian nods.

“Thank…you.”

Everything was quiet as they kept walking to the clinic. There were no more mercs in the way so it was an easier time to get there. Even Garrus didn’t want to deal with any mercs seeing how he wasn’t doing too well because of the plague, and Navi did not have the stamina to keep using her biotics. This moment of silence allowed Garrus to think about what happened a moment ago with the Batarian. Navi did not sound remotely happy to be near that Batarian if sound could kill that Batarian would be dead.

Turning towards Navi, he realized she was quiet again and obviously in her thoughts. He could feel the anger, and the hate even now.

“Navi?” She turns to him and smiles, it was fake and he can tell.

“Yes, Mr. Angel?”

“Are you okay? _Coughs_ ….look like you wanted to kill that Batarian instead of helping him. _Gasp_ You hid it well, but your subharmonics told a different story.” She kept smiling that fake smile.

“I hate Batarians.” Was all she said and that was that.

When they got to the clinic Garrus sighs.

 _‘Finally, I can ge-’_

Suddenly, he was on the ground with a scalpel against his neck.

“How would you like to die? Would you like me to peel you apart slowly as you beg for death? Or would you like me to feed you Levo food forcefully for getting close to my little girl Vakarian.” An older woman growls from on top of him, his body too weak to push her off.

“Mommy!” Garrus coughs.

“Listen” He starts but before he could get anything out he felt himself fly across the clinic hitting the wall. Garrus spits up blood and groans holding his side looking up. Her eye was fully black and her entire body was glowing blue and red just like Shepard, but it seems as if she has more control.

Her hands started to glow with power as she was about to unleash something at him. Until Navi was in front of him glaring at her mother.

“Mom! Stop! Angel isn’t like the others!” Garrus stares at the woman in front of him. Her? This woman was Shepard and Navi’s mother? She was a shade darker than Shepard and her hair reminds him of a male fringe pointed downward but much longer and brown. 

“Navi, move this man is a danger to our family.” Navi shakes her head challenging her mother.

“He helped me, mommy, please don’t hurt him! Where is Dr.Solus?” She sighs her eyes still black. 

“Navi, my little Turian this is the man who has been chasing your sister all over the Galaxy.” Navi looks shocks and turns toward Garrus.

“I…is that true? I…thought you were Lulu’s friend di…did you lie?” Her subharmonics gave a sad sound and Garrus felt bad.

“I…yes I lied, but I am no… _’cough’_ …here to take your sister away” Navi frowns before turning back to her glowing mother.

“Mom please don’t hurt him he is sick, and…and Dr. Solus said we must help the helpless.” Her mother glares at Garrus and he looks away from her glare if looks can kill he would be dead right now.

“Patients panicking. Ruined clinic. Dr. Shepard, you must remain calm.” Garrus's eyes were getting hazy as he turned to see a Salarian placing a hand on the woman's shoulder. Navi was calling out to him, but he couldn’t hear since everything was turning black.

********************

“Honestly mom do you know how much all of this will cost!” _Shepard?_

“I don’t understand why are you not more concerned about this Spectre, who has been chasing you all over the Galaxy mind you, knowing who your sister is now.” _Shepard’s mother._

“Mommy I’m fine. I told you everything that happened, he helped me deliver the meds and protected me against the stupid mercs. God do you have to be so protective?” _Navi._ He felt a Turian hand touching him. “Okay, his temperature is lowered.”

“I need to be protective of my daughters! This man could have kidnapped and taken you for ransom forcing a trade of your life for Luna's! I have told you over and over again stop being naive on Omega! What have I told you about Spectres Naviana!?”

“I am not naive! He did not kidnap me! I am fine! I can take care of myself you know!” 

"Oh yeah? Did you tell him your name?!"

"Why should that matter?!"

"Naviana Shepard. Did. You. Tell. Him. Your. Name?!"

Silence

"Well, I am waiting!"

"Mom come on give her a break. Garrus wouldn't do those things."

"Oh? Garrus is it? So Garrus wouldn't arrest and throw you into prison for the Council if given the chance? Garrus wouldn't chase you like a damn predator around the galaxy!? Have you forgotten that you are on the Council's shit list, my darling daughter." 

"I haven't forgotten anything! But Garrus, yes Garrus, wouldn't do the things to Navi you described okay. Believe it or not, he's an honourable Turian; he wouldn't use that type of tactic."

"He's a SPECTRE! Have you forgotten what type of people they are!? Why are you acting as if he is a long time friend!?"

"No, I haven't forgotten what a Spectre is, mother; and we've known each other for eight months now since the chase started. And well...as time passed things have...certainly changed." 

"What does that even mean?"

"It means that I formed a friendship with this Spectre! There were plenty of times I got 'caught' and he let me go."

Silence, Garrus felt a poke in his arm.

_'Friendship huh?'_

"...Luna...did you sleep with this Spectre?"

_'Well, Shit'_

"Wh...what?"

"I noticed a scent when you came back from dealing with Nassana Dantius, but I couldn't focus on it since I was setting up everything for us to mourn your father."

_'Shepard's father is dead?'_

"I...what...that doesn't....I..."

"Mommy I'm sorry...I guess when I heard he was a friend of Luna's, who knew she works for the Shadow Broker, I got excited since only Luna's friends know who she works for. I messed up just like I did with that Asari Spectre and yes I told him my name."

_'Asari Spectre?'_

“I… _'sigh'_...I am sorry…you’re my little Turian even at your age. After what happened it’s hard not to worry. Doesn't help that I need to be away from you for long periods of time.”

“Navi could join us now mom, she’s sixteen and I believe her biotics are getting better.”

“What and leave Daniel alone here with Dr. Solus? He wouldn’t last without me.”

“You only say that because you like him” Shepard giggles.

_‘I miss her giggle…wait.’_

“What!? Ew…No!” He hears a gagging sound.

“Navi, see to the other patients. He is stable I can take care of him.” The Salarian?

He heard movement. A door open then close.

“Mom, at least question him why he is here before you try to kill him.”

“Luna, don't think you are off the hook here. How close are you with this Turian?” He heard Shepard groans.

“Okay! Fine! After I don't know, I guess five months of him chasing me there was a big shift. There were times we worked together alright. Sometimes he would save my ass when I overstep in certain situations, and yes we had sex when I went on that mission to assassinate Nassana Dantius. Wasn't the first time we had sex either.”

_'What?'_

"What!? Do you mea-"

“Quiet! He is beginning to wake.” Garrus opens his eyes and he is met with a slap.

“Ow…what the hell?”

“What the hell are you doing on Omega with my sister?!” He sat up, opens his eyes, and looks around. Four red eyes stare at him. Two of them in disgust and the other two in annoyance. The Salarian doctor began to study him humming to himself.

“Impressive.” He whispers. Shepard placed her hands on her hips.

“You can study him after Dr. Mordin. I need him sober so he could tell me why the hell he is here on Omega with my sister.” Dr. Mordin inhaled.

“Would. But must make sure the patient is healthy after getting hit by your mother. My patient, my responsibility” Shepard’s mother rolls her eyes and crosses her arms around her chest.

“He's lucky Navi stopped me.” Shepard sighs and kept staring at Garrus waiting for his answer. He thought about what he was about to say before nodding.

“I was hoping to buy some information from you or maybe we could set aside the game we play and work together. I put the pieces together and figured out you work with the Shadow Broker.” Although Navi made it clear Shepard works for the Shadow Broker; he wanted to hear from the person herself. Even when it all makes sense he was a bit cautious to outright state she works with the Shadow Broker. After all, there are many information brokers in the galaxy, but the Shadow Broker is the one on top. Judging from the looks by Shepard and her mother; he was right. Mordin took a sample of his blood.

“Well then, looks like the great Garrus Vakarian knows who my employer is. That means you know he and I are not cheap. So, tell me what information you are looking for?”

“Do you happen to have any information about Maelon Heplorn?” Mordin stops what he is doing and narrows his eyes at Garrus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, these notes are for answering questions I believe would be raised by readers. Feel free to leave a question and I would make sure to answer them when I am free.
> 
> This is not a question but more of something I want to bring up to my readers. I don't know how to type/talk like Mordin so if he seems OOC or whatever I am sorry, but I will still try to make him sound like Mordin.
> 
> Why does Navi talk human such as saying God?  
> Navi was born into a human family so she would talk more human, but she is Turian 100%


	9. Freak

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Garrus joins Shepard on her ship and is introduced to his one true love, calibrating a gun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: This Chapter contains past cannibalism. If you wish to skip it just skip the lengthy italics part.

“Do you happen to have any information about Maelon Heplorn?” Mordin stops what he is doing and narrows his eyes at Garrus.

“No, I don’t have any information on Maelon Heplorn. You think information just pops out of existence?” Luna asks crossing her arms across her chest.

“Well no but like I said since you work for the Shadow Broker, and he has lots of information.” Luna narrows her eyes.

“What’s the catch then if I get this information? Do I magically get off the Councils shit list?”

“Well, I don’t know about that.”

“If you want the information you are going to get her off their list. Luna will not give you anything if this cannot be done.” Laena demanded. Garrus sighs and looks her in the eyes.

“Look, It’s not that easy.”

“Make it easy. No immunity no information.” Luna said.

“Wouldn’t you prefer credits?”

“The Shadow Broker will of course. Doesn’t mean I will ask for this information, give it to you after an exchange, and still be wanted. Don’t worry I am sure they will grant it. Judging from the fact that you came all this way to see me this is a serious matter no?” Garrus stares at her and internally groan.

 _‘Why couldn't this be easy?’_ He thought.

“Shepard. Maelon is an old apprentice from STG days. I would like to figure out what is happening.” Mordin takes a deep breath. “If you will not work with the Spectre perhaps you can find out for me? Would also like to join of course.” Laena looked surprised.

“Join us? Mordin are you sure what about the Clinic?”

“Assistant Daniel can take care of things, because of Shepard’s help, the district is saved.” He nods at Luna and she smiles.

“Well if Mordin wants to join us why not? I’m sure you can use another’s input on things mom.” Garrus coughs and they all look at him. Mordin was the first to speak.

“Are you still experiencing symptoms, Spectre?” Garrus laughs nervously staring at the needle.

“Uh…no I am fine, but I would like to say. You are the only one who I can go to with this. I don’t know anyone else with as much information as you Shepard. If I convince the council to give you immunity will you help me?” Luna thought about it for a bit before shrugging her shoulders.

“Yeah, but only if you can get me the immunity. If not I am taking my ship, my information, and doing this all by myself only because Mordin has an interest in this Melon guy.” Laena shakes her head.

“It’s Maelon, and Mordin why do you have this sudden interest for him?”

“I told you. He is was an old assistant of mine. That is all I can tell you.” Laena frowns before nodding.

“I understand keeping secrets of past work. I have my own after all. Mordin you should tell the rest of the staff what is going to happen here and head to the ship. I am going to talk to Navi and help pack her things, no way in hell I’m leaving her here without Mordin. Luna, I’ll see you on the ship.” Luna nods.

“Hey once on the ship just inform everyone what's going to happen.” Once the two scientists were gone Luna put all her attention on Garrus who was now standing up.

“Hey.” She says.

“Hey.” He repeats and starts to put on his clothes. She narrows her eyes distrusting

“Who told you I was here? Was it Vasir?” He stops what he is doing and turns to her surprised she knew that name.

“Wait, Vasir? Tela Vasir?” Luna leans on the table beside him.

“Yes, Tela Vasir. She works for the Shadow Broker as well, and she always hated my ass. Let’s just say were rivals and leave it at that. She plays dirty, but to tell another Spectre about my sister? I’ll find and kill her.”

“No, I overheard the conversation you were having with Zaeed.” This made Luna give an O-face and embarrassingly look away.

“Well, Shit. How do you know my sister Navi? No one would think ‘Turian girl has Human for older sister’.”

“I met her while looking for you. She was going to get hurt by a Vorcha, I stepped in and killed him before he can hurt her. She said something about building a new Mech since hers broke." Luna laughs a big smile on her face.

“Oh yeah. My little sis loves her machines. Building mechs and finding new ways to help people is her thing. I bet when you met her she was all over the place. I swear she has the energy-”

“Of a thousand dreadnoughts? Yeah, I said that and she jumped for joy since you say that to her.” Luna giggles.

“Thanks for saving her. I would say I owe you, but I know how you would twist it. Look I want to help you Vakarian, but I have my family take care of and my job to do. Get me that immunity and I am all yours.”

_‘I am all yours.’_

“All mines huh?” Luna's face became warm and she stutters.

“I…you know what I mean!”

_‘Wasn't the first time we had sex either.’_

That thought made him pause for a moment and he gave her a confused look as Luna begins walking towards the door calling out to him to hurry up.

“Wait, Shepard.” She turns around with her eyebrows up.

“What is it Vakarian?”

“Your sister said, ‘The news really hit my sister hard.’ After the ‘death’ of Archangel.” She looks unfazed.

“She’s not wrong you were doing some good work here. You kept my sister safe and hearing of you dying? Well, things just got worst and I worry for my sister every day.” He wasn’t convinced

“How did you know it was me? Not even Aria knew I was Garrus Vakarian until recently.” Garrus crosses his arms across his chest eyeing her suspiciously.

“You just told me who my employer was and now you are asking how I knew it was you?” She laughs.

“That is a fair point. But your sister made it out as if you knew me personally. I understand if news hit hard when someone who is protecting the streets dies, but your sister had a different tune to it.” Luna bites her lips trying to think of something to keep him from figuring it out.

“I was young Garrus. Young and sad you died that’s it.” She was getting nervous and Garrus can sense it.

_‘Shit, he’s starting to put two and two together’_

“She said you went, ‘dark and edgy’ whatever that means and that it was the second time you became like that. It sounds like you knew me personally. Which is fine, but the thing is I don’t remember you.” He begins to walk towards her as she starts to fidgets and points towards the door behind her.

“Garrus we don’t have tim-”

“You said, ‘Wasn't the first time we had sex either.’ When I was waking up. Shepard, we only had sex once in Nassana Dantius tower, and I don't remember another time. And trust me I would remember another time if it was with you. That leaves me with two choices. One just doesn't fit your character and the other seems to fit pretty well. That one being you found a way to erase yourself from my memory.” She froze in place eyes wide.

“You heard!? But you were asleep?!” She was panicking now, but Garrus was calm.

“Did we sleep together three years ago Shepard? Were you the one from afterlife I took to a hotel room? The one I bonded with?” He cuts her off

“I…uh...” She bites her lips again looking everywhere but at him.

“Is that my bite on you? Is this your bite?” He asks as he stands in front of her showing her his mark. Luna decides it was time to get the hell out of here and turns around beginning to practically run out the door.

“Garrus lets ju-” He grabs her wrist before she could run.

_‘Damn it!’_

“Shepard come on, please. I want to, no, I need to know” He stares in her eyes and she sucks in her breath.

“Yes, we slept together. I didn’t know who you were until we had sex again at the tower. My job was simple, I was supposed to gain information about you and sell it back to the Shadow Broker. My mother created a drug that would have you tell me the truth whenever I ask you a question, and after I got my information I would knock you out and leave. By the time you woke up, it would erase me from your memories."

"Is that why when I think back to the memories it would show you as a silhouette?" She nods playing with her hair.

"Yes, and you were supposed to just forget about it. That's how it works. You can't remember what I look like, sound like, feel like. Just nothing. If anything it would be like you described a silhouette within the memory. Usually, the person would you know, move on! I don't sleep with the targets hell I barely sleep with anyone. I get them hot and bothered to the point they spill information to me like a dam that broke because of the drug in their system. But this was different, I didn't just sit you down, flirt, and got information out of you."

"We had sex." He said grinning at her flustered face.

"It was a simple job that turned into my first time having sex with a damn Turian, yes. For some reason, you had high willpower or something! You wouldn't tell me the damn information, you got me super horny with that damn voice of yours, and God you were amazing at fucking me! It's like I wanted to be fucked like that since forever, not even my ex fucked me like that!" She admits while pacing in the room making sure not to look at him as she was too embarrassed.

"How come you didn't know I was Garrus Vakarian when we first met?" She sighs.

"Because Garrus, I was the agent who was supposed to get that information. Like I said information doesn't just pop out of nowhere. Agents, such as myself, need to collect that information to give to the Shadow Broker. You had no clan marks. And not to sound rude, but Turians look alike to me sometimes so I couldn't figure it out who the hell you were. I just knew Archangel was a Turian, and there was more than one Turian around you. Even when the signs told me you were Archangel I had to make sure the data is correct. I needed you to tell me exactly that you were Archangel."

He's starting to question whether if she was a perfectionist or the job needs her to be that way.

"The Shadow Broker would have been very upset if I didn't have solid proof you were Archangel. As an agent, you need to be very thorough. I didn't become one of the best by giving him ninety-five percent. It's full one hundred percent or nothing. When you 'died' I told the Shadow Broker and he told me to forget about who Archangel was because it just didn't matter. So the case dropped and I had to move on." She looked down sadly.

"Why were you broken up about me dying." She closes her eyes and hugs herself.

"It felt good. Everything felt so good. It was like we fit. I felt like my real self as you teased me, dominate me, and just someone else I've been holding inside. The pain, the dominance it was wild and I loved it. I felt beautiful in this ugly body of mines, and I thought I would never feel that way ever again after my ex and I broke up. After so long...I finally felt content, satisfied." His eyes looked at her intensely remembering what Ridgefield said to him.

_"When someone is being happy, they usually are content, satisfied. For example, when I am with Illia I feel happy and satisfied.” Ridgefield explains._

“What gave me away?” He asks taking her chin and making her look at him.

“Your eyes.” Is all she said staring at them, and her heart begins to race memories of that night flashing before her eyes.

“Red eyes. It all makes sense.” He whispers staring into her eyes, and as the memories began to flash in his mind each was correctly replacing the silhouettes with Luna’s image.

As they continue to stare into each other's eyes filling the gaps of memories their heads began to gravitate towards each other closing in for a kiss.

“Hey, Lulu! Mom told me to ask you if I can bring my workbench onto the ship! She said there is room on deck 4 and I wou..ld…” Navi stares at the two as they awkwardly were in weird positions. Garrus was staring at Dr. Mordin’s instruments, while Luna was on a bed laying sideways with a creepy grin on her face.

“OH! Really!? Great! OK!” Navi now looks scared as she starts to slowly back out of the door.

“I’ll…just tell mom…you said yes.” And she was gone. Garrus turns to look at Luna whose face finally relaxed but was looking sad.

“Listen, Shepard.” She puts her hands up a frown on her face.

“Look Garrus I can’t be with you. I'm sorry. I still love my ex. I miss his arms around me, his voice, his kiss, his everything! It would be wrong for me to be with you when I am not over him. It doesn’t help that I am a fucking freak with a past that, honestly, will never go away.” She says this while looking in his eyes. It made her feel guilty when she saw a hint of hurt in them.

_'A freak?'_

“I…get it. I’m not fully ready for anything, to be honest. I just want to say it gives me great closure to know who you are.” He smiles and she smiled back.

“Good I am glad we got that out of the way.” When she moves her hair from the side of her face Garrus saw her mark and he grins happily knowing it is his mark. She notices and moves her hair to cover it. He quickly brushes her hair away from it.

“Even after you know whose mark this is. You kept it.” She touches it and looks away.

“You saw my body I have a lot of scars. I am terrified of surgery, it's a huge trigger for me. Plus, this is the only one that has good memories. Like I said I felt content, satisfied during that moment and this scar, or bite, locks it that memory. I couldn’t just take it away.” Garrus scratches his neck his body heat increasing. From the corner of her eye, she spots her mark and gasp reaching up to touch it. He coughs.

“Now that I think about it. You didn’t even know who I was until a moment ago! Oh shit! I bit you hard if the mark is still holding today!”

“Could you calm down!? I see where your sister gets it from” He chuckles and she pouts sticking her tongue at him. He notices she was still looking and touching it.

“Why?”

“I guess it's the same reason as you. I felt content, satisfied and It became a happy memory. Just like you, I haven't had that feeling ever since...sigh...I guess that's why I couldn't help myself I lost control and bonded with you. Not willing to wait this time."

"Not willing to wait this time?"

"Yes, there was a woman I was in love with. She didn't want to bond yet and so I waited, but I never got the chance. She was someone I was happy being with or should I say content, satisfied." Luna nods in understanding.

"I see."

"It's not like you replaced her of course. It's more of 'I found someone who fits with me again, and this time I will take what is mine' sort of thing. Yes, very demanding and just wrong now that I say that out loud. But it's a primal instinct that is ingrained in me. Sorry about that." She giggles and punches his arm.

"I get it. To be honest I loved the feeling of your primal instincts." She seductively said and his body felt hot again and he coughs before talking.

"After we had sex you disappeared and I was hoping to see you again, to be honest. I never in my entire life thought I would be with a squishy human, but there I was hoping to be with you. It's why I became so obsessed with finding out who you were. Not only did I know I bonded with you, but really wanted to mate with you.”

"What's the difference?" She wonders.

"Well, bonding is in Human terms marriage. Mating is to be with the one you bonded with. So I um...wanted you as my lover so to speak, but don't worry I understand that isn't what you want and I respect that. I hope you understand what a mark is right?" She nods.

"It can be a one-way street or a two-way street. The mark(s) is only related to Turian culture. If a Turian mark another while the other did not mark them back they are 'claimed' by that Turian and vice versa. This is called a 'claimed' mark. If a Turian mark another and the other did the same, pretty much what we did, they are bonded. This is called a 'Bonded' mark. Were pretty much married, big guy." He nods swallowing at that statement.

"I do know if the marks are not needed, they could be removed. The removal process is painful even with modern technology. That is one of the reasons why I am terrified of getting it removed. I also know the mark can be...forced...on someone." She closes her eyes trying to ignore the thoughts of her past.

"Yes, slavery was a practice long ago. The Hierarchy does not condone that in today's age, but there are secret slaveries. How do you know so much?" She shrugs.

"My little sister is a Turian and my mother is extremely knowledgable about Turians."

"How?"

"When the time comes she will tell you. That is something only she could speak about." He stares at her for a moment trying to find the answer but ultimately nods.

"I understand if you don't want to take the mark away. I won't stop you from being with whomever, although another Turian wouldn't be willing to bond with you until you have it removed. When the time comes I will have the surgery to have it removed, but until then I hope you don't mind if I kept it." She giggles.

"No, I don't mind big guy. Honestly, thinking about that night makes me horny." He chuckles bashfully as the memory played clearly within his mind, but stop as he remembers what happens after. Her giggling stops when his face became dark and full of anger.

“Thinking about that night is nice until I remember what happens after. The next day I was betrayed and now being on Omega, always reminds me of what happened.” And like that, he is back to living in the past and Luna was a bit shock at the quick 180. He was shutting down and Luna was thinking on her feet how to make him feel better.

“But what about all your good work before the betrayal? Or have you forgotten.” He sighs closing his eyes.

“It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters. Omega is still shit, they died in vain.”

“Things do matter” She reaches to touch his face and he pulls away.

“No, it fucking doesn’t! I go by the books it doesn’t fucking matter. I don’t go by the books it still doesn’t matter. Nothing fucking matters!” He yells she backs away a little in fear and he looks at her with a sorry expression.

“Garrus…” He shakes his head and sat down on a chair. Their ghosts were looking at him now as they stood beside her.

“They died because of my naivety. Beliving I could change Omega…hah…I was hoping for it you know. To die among my men, but I lived and now I see their faces every day and every night.” He places his head in his hands leaning down. Luna walks over to him pushing him to sit up in his chair, he looks at her. She bends and their heads touch Garrus took a deep breath.

_‘Why would you do this? Do you know what this gesture means? Most likely. This mark is all I have left that makes me happy Shepard. Now that I have found you how could I let you go?’_

“I…I still want to die Shepard.” She didn’t move and kept holding her head to his.

**********************************

“So all I need you to do is get my immunity. Then you’ll join my crew on my ship and we can go about our business easy.” Luna and Garrus were walking towards the docks to board their ships to take to the Citadel.

“I can’t promise you anything you know. But I think I can make them see reason, and I bet they would give it. By the time I failed at taking you in the fourth time they kind of told me to let you go and focus on more important things.” Luna laughs

“Are you serious? You were so determined on getting me that you ignore your superiors?”

“Yeah, what can I say sometimes I have a one-track mind.”

“Sometimes?” He chuckles before noticing a Vorcha running off with something. It didn’t take long to realize it was one of his ship's monitors.

“What the…” He rushes to see multiple people now collecting from his ship! Luna catches up to him.

“Whoa is that your ship?” He growls and takes out his gun shooting at a Human male who was holding a piece of his ship.

“That’s mine!” He screams shooting indiscriminately Luna tackles him to the ground as people start running around in a frenzy.

“What the hell are you doing!? There are innocent people here!”

“None of these people are innocent! They're taking my shit!” He growls now overpowering her and pushing her away. Before he can shoot again Luna uses her biotics and slams him onto the floor.

“STOP! There are children here Garrus!” He tries to fight against the force of her powers before looking to see a young Human boy looking scared as everyone panics. It wasn’t long until his mother came and grab him taking him away. Garrus finally calms.

“I…I am sorry. I won’t hurt anyone. Please let me go.” He sounded defected and Luna sighs. Once he got up places her hand on his arm.

“Listen big guy I know you are pissed. I’ll figure out what happened here, but right now let’s recover what you have and I’ll take you to the Citadel. I have a place where you can contact the Council on my ship.” She gave him a sorry expression and he sighs closing his eyes.

“I hate Omega.”

An hour later Navi sighs putting her hands on her hips looking back towards Garrus and Luna as they wait.

“Well, looks like nothing is left. Kenn is still looking into things, but I doubt he’s going to find anything. I’m sorry Mr. Angel.”

“It’s Garrus” He groans not at her, but at the situation. Luna smiles at Navi.

“Hey, Navi why don’t you go and see if your machine workshop is finished.” Navi beams and nods.

“Okay! Again sorry Mr. An-Garrus” She runs off. Garrus runs a hand on his fringe and starts typing away on his Omni-tool. Luna stares at him.

“No ships available.” He sighs.

“Hey, why don’t I show you around my ship?” He looks at her and nods.

“Lead the way.”

Entering through the docking port Luna takes Garrus to the cockpit.

“This is where our great pilot lives.” Joker turns with his chair and grins at Garrus.

“Hello, the name is Jeff, but people call me Joker. Which is the only name I would listen to unless you are the old ladies on the ship.”

“Mom and Dr. Chakwas are not going to like you calling them that Joker.” He chuckles.

“Well, they wouldn’t know if you don’t tell them!” Garrus nods at him.

“Garrus Vakarian”

“Oh, I know exactly who you are. Had Luna acting like a blushing bride that one ti-” Luna cuts him off.

“OKAY, now if you could follow me we can see the much better areas of the ship.”

“She said you have the most cutest ton-”

“I’ll rip your throat out Joker if you keep going!” She said and Garrus chuckles.

“Cutest what?” Luna facepalms her head and points to the galaxy map.

“This is the bridge it’s where I would command where the ship would go. On the right is our garden, It has a lot of different fruits and vegetables that are dextro and levo base so nothing to worry about food-wise. Unless you want meat, I would have to buy it, but not to worry we have dextro meat in storage.” She led him into the Garden where Juniper was sleeping at her desk. Garrus was in shock.

“Is that a Lupe?” Luna turns to see a spiky looking fruit.

“Oh yeah, Kenn loves those. They’re ok but not my favorite dextro fruit.” He was staring at the delicious fruit as she spoke but stops suddenly after hearing her. Remembering what Navi said he decided to ask her.

“How can you have dextro base food and drink?” Her eyes went dark.

“Let’s just continue the tour.” He nods but was still curious.

“So this is my mother’s Lab.” They walk into the lab to see all three doctors talking among themselves. Laena was getting upset, Mordin kept talking, and Karin was laughing. Before Garrus could say anything Luna pulls him away into a small hallway with some boxes and a ladder.

“This is a quick route from deck 2 to deck 3 if you don’t want to use the elevator. After here is the information room.” When they walked inside a few people of different species were talking quietly to each other. Garrus was impressed by the look at everything including the main information hub in the middle of the room.

“How expensive is this ship?” She laughs.

“Very. Cost me a fortune, but the jobs I do gets me a lot of credits.” She brings him to the QEC. “This is where you can talk to the Council. Why don’t you call them up and ask them that very important question.” He nods.

“Who is this? Garrus Vakarian? Where are you?” Tevos ask.

“I am on Lunaria Shepard’s ship. I am contacting you to ask if you can give her immunity. She has the information we need to get Maelon and I think it’s important to set aside-”

“Are you insane!? That woman took Alliance blueprints she deserves to be taken in and stripped of anything of value.” Luna laughs loudly as Udina barks.

“I’m pretty sure you need my help more than anything.” Councilor Valarian glares.

“We don’t need your information. We have our information.”

“Oh? And how is that working out for you Councilors?” They didn’t say anything. Garrus sighs.

“Look Councilors, I know this isn’t ideal, but right now she is my best bet. All the other Spectres would have their own sources this one will be mine.”

“Give us a mom-”

“No, give my immunity and I would get the information. If not I will find a way to block any way for you to get the information you need. If you don’t believe me, try me. Plus I am sure the mister-”

“I believe she deserves immunity.” Sparatus points out. Garrus narrows his eyes.

_‘Is he nervous?’_

All the Councilors voted and it ended three to one. Udina looks flabbergasted at the Salarian Councilor.

“Lunaria Shepard you are granted immunity as long as you are with Garrus Vakarian at all times within Council space. If you are not seen with him you will be arrested, and taken into custody.” Luna rolls her eyes.

“I think thi-”

“Hey, Joker I think the Councilors is done talking.” And they were gone.

“Ohhhhh that felt amazing Commander, we should do it again.” Garrus' was in shock for a moment as Luna started her way through the information room. He caught up to her.

“You just hung up on the Council.” She laughs getting to the ladder.

“And I’ll do it again. Now let’s go big guy more of the ship for you to see!” He joins her.

“What were you going to say to the Turian Councilor to make him give you his vote.” She grins.

“He and the Asari Councilor are having an affair with each other. It would look really bad in politics seeing how they are both married or bonded in Turian case. I figured I use that as leverage and the Salarian Councilor would join them just like I predicted.” Garrus laughs in amusement.

When they got to the room Garrus groans getting off the ladder.

“That was a tight fit.” She laughs.

“I thought you like tight fits?” He coughs and grins.

“Tight yes, but also wet.” This made Luna stop laughing and bashfully look away. Now it was Garrus turn to laugh at her

“Alright big guy let’s go! This room by the way is life support, but it isn’t that important. My old mentor loves it here though so I make it a point to not change anything.” They walk out of the room and turn to the left. This room has a bar, card table, a game head machine, a couch to lounge on, and a wide view of space.

“This room is the lounge, you can relax and enjoy the music in here, play card games with friends, drink at the bar, and if you want to beat my high score? Play on the game head station. Video games are sometimes my hobbies, so good luck.” She grins.

“What’s on the opposite side?” They walked across the ship and walk inside.

This room had many books and a table including a wide view of space.

“This is the ‘library’ of the ship. That’s what my mom loves to call it, which makes sense. We have a good amount of books here from earth. So sorry if they are not in your language, but there is a translator around here somewhere. I used to tell my mom how useless books were, but I started to read some and realized how wrong I was.”

“This is where the crew sleeps. Of course in shifts. This is also where the bathrooms are. They are separated by sex, please do not walk into the girl’s bathroom, thanks.” On the other side of this floor is shown a small kitchen and two rooms, one of the rooms have large windows and medical equipment.

“This is where the crew cooks and eats. Our head chief here, Rupert Gardner, is still learning how to cook dextro so give him some time.” Rupert laughs.

“Yeah well, Kenn believes I am getting it. As for your mother, I don’t think she’s happy yet. Once I please her I know I got it down.” Luna shakes her head and chuckles. She then points to the room without windows.

“That is my mother’s room, you are not allowed in there at any time. The only people who are allowed in there are Navi and me. Sometimes Dr. Chakwas. My mother is the executive officer of this ship, so when I am not on board you listen to her.” They then walk into what Garrus believes is the medbay.

“This is the medbay where Dr. Chakwas will be in charge of at all times. Be careful she loves needles.”

“And that room?” He points to the closed door.

“That is my ship's‘ motherboard’ its where it needs to be. Actually, would you like to see what's inside?” He shrugs and she pulls him into the room. She was going to explain more when they saw Navi typing away at her Omni-tool.

“Okay EDI first test. Can you hear me?”

“Navi? What are you doing?” That spooks her as Navi jumps.

“I…nothing!” Her eyes were wide.

“Yes Navi, I can hear you.” A female robotic voice similar to her mother spoke. Luna began to look terrified.

“Navi! What did you do?!”

“Uh…remember that rouge VI you got me months ago? Well…..I was upgrading and tweaking her with other engineering friends of mines. Eventually, it was no longer a VI, but now an AI!” Luna was panicking.

“Navi please don’t tell me you did not install a rouge VI onto my ship.” Garrus facepalm.

“NO! I installed an AI onto the ship! She taught me so much! After many sleepless nights from my friends and I, she is good to go! But not everything is set in stone I still want to work on her. Ken and Gabby said they would help!” Luna starts to pace.

“I wish to say thank you for getting me off Luna base Commander Shepard.” Luna stops and looks around.

“Where are you?” A blue holo sphere pops up making Luna jump a little.

“I am here Commander Shepard. Your ship's engineering power is phenomenal. Linking my data drives to them has increased many of my previous limitations.”

“Oh God! Were going to die!” Navi gasps.

“No, we're not! Would you relax EDI is not going to kill us! The only reason why she went rouge was that she didn’t know what was going on. Think of a baby being grown into a full adult and not knowing what was going on.”

“I do not wish to cause any harm to organic life forms on this ship. I will only forget to recycle the Normandy’s oxygen when I’ve discovered something truly interesting.” Luna gave a face of horror and took a step back while Navi laughed.

“That was a joke.” She said to Luna’s silence.

“That worked out great EDI! Told you she would freak out! Robert was totally right about teaching her humor. Hopefully, Joker won’t feel replaced.”

“Not gonna happen anyway, no one can joke as good as me.” He said through the comms. Luna’s heart was going to explode and she needed to get out of there.

“I only wish to learn Commander Shepard.” EDI states as Luna was heading out of the room.

“Okay don’t panic Luna, not like I could do anything about this. Shit! Shit! Let's go Garrus before I go Insane. Navi! I’m going to tell mom.” Navi looked scared.

“Not mom.” She whispers as Luna and Garrus walks out.

“Really? ‘I’m going to tell mom’ Shepard, seriously?” Garrus asks while laughing. Already liking this ship and crew. Luna glares.

“Look, I panicked I can’t believe she actually did this!” She groans and flings her arms in the air.

“So that’s who you gave the rouge VI to. Now it’s biting you in your ass.” Joker calls out laughing.

“Just so you know, Joker, you share the cockpit with the AI.”

“Wait…no.”

“Hello, Jeff Moreau.”

“No! Where is the mute button!?”

After much-needed drinks from the kitchen, they made their way to the battery. Garrus touch the console and felt like it was made for him.

“This is the battery. The Normandy’s guns. It does its job So I won't complain. I am told I need to calibrate it often, but I don’t have that kind of skill. Was looking for someone, but running around the galaxy collecting information and dodging a certain Turian Spectre didn’t help. Since we are going on the Citadel I could lo-”

“I’ll do it.” He cuts her off. She gives him a questioning look.

“You know how to calibrate a big gun?” He smirks.

“EDI what is the Gun percentage?”

“24%” Garrus looks at Shepard wide eye in shock.

“24? Really? Do you not care about the defenses of the ship.” Luna rolls her eyes.

“I care plenty! But, I’m not going to war or anything so I just made it slip.”

“Oh yeah? Even when I told you we need someone to work on that thing.” Joker calls out.

“Joker hush.” Garrus starts to type away focusing. Luna stares at him.

_‘Look at him all focus. He looks hot.’_

She looks away embarrassed.

“Okay EDI where is it now.”

“29% impressive Spectre Vakarian.” He gives Shepard a smirk which made her oddly weak in the knees and she bashfully looks away.

“Impressive indeed. You can have this place if you want. Now, do you want to stay here and fix my gun or you want to continue the tour?” Looking from console to Shepard he shrugs.

“I can do this later. Where to next?”

“This is Deck 4, Engineering.” They walked to the right and Luna rolls her eyes. “Okay, this is Navi machine room apparently. She loves to build things so I guess mom gave her this area. Engineering was never given much as most of the time the Engineers would be spending their time by the drive core, which is this way.” They walked through a door and saw two humans talking to one another. They both turn and smile.

“Hey Commander is this the Turian people are talking about,” Ken asks.

“Yes, I hope you can show him some respect. Working with a Spectre was not on my list of things, but here we are.” Garrus coughs before Gabby can speak.

“The name is Garrus Vakarian, not Turian.”

“Of course the first thing Kenneth does is insult a Spectre.” Before Kenneth can speak Luna glares at both of them.

“Navi has added an AI to my ship and she’s getting help from you two. Explain now.” They both look at each other and start to stutter.

“I...uh”

“We…Commander” Luna rolls her eyes.

“If anything happens, just know I am not going to be happy.” And she walks out not before hearing.

“She is a very scary woman.”

“I agree.”

Once on the elevator, she sighs and turns to Garrus.

“So how are you liking my lovely ship?”

“I can say I won’t be very bored.” He chuckles and she punches his arm lightly. They finally reach the final floor and it was just the shuttle bay nothing too crazy.

“And that is the end of this glorious tour. I know it’s a lot, which you know fair, and ultra-expensive to maintain, which it is. But it’s my home. I don’t have any private homes anywhere I live on this ship. So it’s why I invest a LOT in it.” She touches some boxes a smile plays on her face.

“Maybe I should work for the Shadow Broker if this is how you are getting paid.” She laughs.

“The shit I have to do to make sure I can pay for this baby, including the crew? Good luck. I also make a lot of credits from side things and stealing. A lot of stealing.”

_‘Mommy says Spectres are just high paid mercs with the Councilors leash’_

“If you could be Spectre would you?”

“HAH! No, having the Council up my ass would suck. I don’t think I would be Spectre even in another timeline.”

*******************************************************************************

_**Starvation** _

_Luna was hungry and the Batarians have not given them food in days._

_“Mommy, it hurts.” Laena was shaking closing her eyes trying not to think of anything related to food._

_“It’s okay baby just hold on.” A Batarian came and dropped some food onto the floor. Luna jumps up but her mother grabs her._

_“Mommy food?” She shook her head she knew what kind of food that was. The people around them jumped at the chance and consumed the food. It wasn’t long before they started to breathed irregularly and shake. Until they couldn’t breathe anymore. Luna stared in fear._

_“Dextro food. We can’t eat that baby we’ll die.” More time, more days._

_**Starving** _

_Luna heard chopping and flesh tearing. She clutched her teeth knowing what is happening. When she looked at Laena who was staring at the other humans eating she held her tight. Begging her mother to allow her to partake Laena stared at her and shook her head. No, they will not do it._

_“Food” and the Batarian drops another plate of dextro food again. More dead, more food._

_**Starved** _

_Luna was now laying down staring at the others eating the ones who have died of eating dextro food. Some did it out of hunger, others did it just to die._

_Her mouth watered as they tore into the meat; and Laena notices. Holding Luna tight she starts to sing softly trying to help Luna tune out those disgusting noises. The Chewing, The Swallowing, and The Digesting._

_“Hu..ngry” Luna whispers. Trying her hardest not to fall victim to what is happening, but her stomach ached and there was so much pain._

_Her senses were heighten from the drugs and she can smell the meat. Her mouth watered even more as she could taste the meat by just smelling. Luna felt herself slowly go insane as she stared at them and in her head, she knew if they were going to survive, they had to eat!_

_Laena gave up and nodded._

_Picking her daughter up with the small amount of strength she has; she made her way over to the dead bodies. Placing her hand onto an already torn flesh she bit into it and chewed._

_Getting it mushy for Luna was hard, but she did it. More days, more time._

_**Broken** _

_They ate what they could. Sometimes they would throw up, but most times they would keep it down. The Batarians laughed._

_“Look at them, animals that’s what they are.”_

_Laena glared as they ate the ‘food’ while Luna cried._

_Eventually, the ‘food’ stopped. No longer people were dying and that means people were desperate again. A fight broke out and there were screams, crying, and begging. Punching, stabbing, and bitting. Luna was taken away for more experiments and came back very high from the drug collapsing in her mother's arms. Luna stared at the dead bodies in hunger._

_When everything calmed down and people passed out; Luna watched as the Batarians took the dead bodies out of the cell they were packed in. Which means the only thing to eat was dextro food. As time passed Luna was still awake, hungry, and staring at the dextro food on the floor._

_“Eat it Human.” She heard the Batarian whisper. With the ‘food’ she grew accustomed to not available anymore, high on the burning drug, and extremely hungry; she starts to crawl towards the food and took a bite._

_“LUNA NO!” Her mother screams. Everyone suddenly awoke to see what was going on. When they saw she had eaten the dextro food they began looking at her hungrily ready for her to drop. Laena stood in front of Luna with arms open._

_“Don’t you fucking dare come near her!” She screams at them as they watched, waiting with saliva running out of their open mouths._

_But she didn’t die so she ate more. Luna didn’t notice Laena watching in shock dropping to her knees. Without thinking, Luna offered some to her mother who in turn took a bite. They ate in silence not going into anaphylactic shock, and the others continue to watch them waiting for them to die._

_They didn’t._

**********************

Luna opens her eyes and lays there with tears running down her face shaking. While in a daze, she shot up from her bed and ran to the bathroom to throw up. The thought of human flesh making her sick. A blinking light from her Omni-tool took her attention.

_“Hey, whenever you are awake come see me? I have something to show you. – G”_

Washing her mouth she looks herself in the eyes.

“You are not there anymore Luna. You eat normal food now remember?” After getting back to normal she leaves her cabin.

When she got to the battery she was confused momentarily before she hears Garrus call out to her. He was in the left-wing of the battery on his Omni-tool.

“Hey, didn’t think to see you up this early. Glad you got my message. I want you to look at this.” She walks over to him and he looks up from his Omni-tool to show her something. Her eyes were about to pop out her head when she saw the price.

“What am I looking at? I can’t afford this right now!” He chuckles.

“It’s a gift from me to you. As you could see it’s called ‘Thanix Cannon’. It was developed by my people, and since I never had a ship like this, nor did I think to have one; I thought, why not have this upgrade? Just imagine calibrating this beauty.”

“Okay, you got me at gift which means free shit and who doesn’t love free shit! Also, it does look amazing. But how would you get it installed?”

“When we stop by the Citadel. I’ll make sure to have it installed then I can calibrate it.” Luna laughs as she crosses her arms looking at him.

“I feel like this whole ‘gift’ is just so you can calibrate a big gun.” His mandibles twitched in amusement.

“Hmm…maybe.”

“I just hope you know this isn’t how you’re going to make me stop doing my job. I love being an agent no amount of gifts is going to change that.” He chuckles.

“Honestly, after what we’ve been through I consider you a friend. Although, it was fun. Chasing you around the galaxy gave me a bit of purpose.”

“Well, they do say men love a good chase.” She said seductively and he chuckles.

“Only because it was so damn fun.” They laughed. When the laughing died down Luna gave him her hand and he gave her a confused look.

“Welcome aboard Spectre Garrus Vakarian. No longer are we enemies, but friends and partners.” He was a bit hesitant about having a partner. What if she got hurt and it was his fault? What if she dies…like his team? He pushed the thoughts away and reminded himself that he needed to do this for galactic stability and shook her hand.

“Thank you for having me aboard Commander Lunaria Shepard. Remind me to have a drink with you to celebrate.” She grins.

Everything is quiet soon after and Garrus stares at Luna. It felt a bit awkward since this was the point she is supposed to walk away. Maybe he should tell her that he wanted to calibrate some more? Opening his mouth to tell her he would like to focus on calibrating now; he saw the depressed look in her eyes. Giving him a fake smile she starts heading towards the door.

“Well, Garrus I’ll let you finish your calibrating. Try not to go crazy.” He grabbed her arm and she tenses up.

“Hey, you okay?” Her eyes were looking at the door as if she wanted to run and escape; but instead, she takes a deep breath before turning her head to him and staring him in the eyes.

“Can I ask you something? Friend to friend?” he nods.

“Of course Shepard.”

“Am I a monster?” She finally asks.

“Crazy? Yes. Monster? No.” She takes another deep breath and admits to what’s on her mind.

“I used to eat humans. I…let me explain….it was either human meat or dextro food.” His eyes grew wide in surprise and confusion. “My mother as well. The bodies were from the ones who ate the dextro food and died…and so we fed on them. You don’t understand starvation until you really experience starvation. Time was unavailable to us, so I don’t know how long I lasted before I finally broke. My mother said because of the experiments that happened to us including eating the dead people that had dextro in their systems; it changed us gave us the ability to eat levo and dextro based protein.” Tears were forming from her eyes. Garrus was still in too much shock to speak.

_“No, don’t you get it, Mr. Angel? They are…different. They are human yes, but…”_

Anger is what Garrus felt as Luna cries. He places a hand on her shoulder trying to comfort her.

_‘Who? Why?’_

_“I hate Batarians.”_

Batarians. The animosity between Humans and Batarians was pretty bad. It's well known that Batarians would attack Human colonies and take them into the slave trade. He thought the Alliance was doing a much better job at protecting their colonies from this problem...wait…was Luna a Slave?

“Shepard were you….a Batarian slave?” She looks at him with her lips quivering before nodding. Garrus' stomach did a knot.

“Yes.” She whispers so softly he almost didn’t hear it. She looks as if she didn’t know whether to breathe or not.

“Spirits, I knew Batarians can be brutal and they would have Human slaves…but forcing them to eat their own kind? Why would they do that?! Where were the Alliance in this?” His hand clutches.

“Everything was an experiment! They had questions and we were helpless Humans ripe to answer them with. When there weren’t experiments there was torture and methods to break us into slaves. Where was the Alliance?! Hah! My father prayed for the Alliance! We waited for the Alliance! Begged for the Alliance! Where was the Alliance!? Nowhere! Nowhere to be found! My mother and I had to save ourselves!” She screams and a force from her caused a dent in the wall behind them. He snaps his head towards the damage before turning back towards her. Garrus drew in some breath as he saw that her eyes were solid black as she looks at him sobbing.

“Shepard…” He didn’t know what to say and she sobs harder. Tears running down her face as she stares wide-eyed at him.

“Be…being a s..slave changed me so much. Not just mentally, but… physically. Look at me Garrus…Look at me!” She screams and he suddenly flew back against the wall behind him. Noticing he was pinned he starts to panic a little and looked to Luna who was now glowing blue and red. He needed to snap her out of it.

“Luna!” He calls out this made her gasp suddenly realizing what she had done and her powers retreated only leaving her eyes as solid black. She shook her head while walking backward as he fell to his feet a little shook.

“I…I’m so…sorry…I didn’t…mean to. This is…what I am trying to tell you…I am not really…Human…” He looked into her abyss like eyes but didn’t feel fear. He starts to walk towards her.

“Yes, you are Luna. You are Human.” She sobs holding her shaking head with her hands not looking at him. Her heart was racing and she could feel herself about to lose it again.

“Most people would think it’s a blessing to be able to eat both dextro and levo…but it’s not…I feel like a monster, a…freak that was created…f…for the amusement of o…others.” She stutters to him. When her back reached the wall behind her; she looked up at him in fear as his image was starting to change into a Batarian with a toothy grin on his face.

“You’re not a freak Shepard. Stop saying that.” When he reached her the image disappeared. All she could see was Garrus looking at her. He held her close putting his head on hers similar to what she has done for him in Dr. Mordins clinic while giving her Turians sounds of comfort hoping it would help. Tears ran down her face as she starts to calm down and her eyes were back to normal.

“I want to be normal. I want to be one hundred percent Human, but I know I can never be just that. I will always be this, a freak.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, these notes are for answering questions I believe would be raised by readers. Feel free to leave a question and I would make sure to answer them when I am free.
> 
> So she's hybrid?  
> No, Luna is human just mutated. I don't want people to think of her as a mix between two or more races since that is not the case. Just wanted to bring this up to clear the misconception of the issue that could arise.
> 
> You just wanted her and Garrus to eat the same food.  
> Yes and no. This isn't about her eating the same food as Garrus. This is about her being different, a mutant. She, and her mother, were changed drastically after their times as slaves and I wanted to show that. While having her enjoy the same food as Garrus. LOL.
> 
> Why did you have to go there?  
> Because yes. This fic is dark and I wanted a reason why she could eat both dextro and levo. Because of how things were for Luna and her mother that reason was never going to be happy.


	10. Beautiful

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The hunt for Maelon begins and on the journey Garrus pushes Luna to see her beauty.

Garrus was typing away at the console quietly making sure not to wake the sleeping woman on his cot in the battery. 

_“I want to be normal. I want to be one hundred percent Human, but I know I can never be just that. I will always be this, a freak.”_

He sighs trying to wrap his head around the events of a few hours ago. 

_‘To eat the dead of your own species. How could anyone force people to do that?! Damn Batarians.’_

His eyes land on her sleeping form. She was sleeping on her stomach with her arms tucked underneath, and her face was looking towards the gun giving him a full view of her sleeping face. His mandible twitches as he stares at her open mouth.

_‘How…beautiful’_

She shivers and scrunches her nose. It wasn’t long before she opens her eyes halfway and her gaze lands on him he gave her a small Turian sound that made her smile.

“Thanks.” She whispers. Sitting up she stretches her limbs and yawns. “The best dream is no dream.” She says and stands up walking over to him placing a hand on his arm. 

“I agree,” he says while typing away not looking at her. She leans on him and yawns again.

“I see you’re still calibrating. Do you ever stop and smell the roses?” He chuckles and looks at her.

“Stop and smell the roses?” She giggles.

“Yes. You should try it sometimes.”

“You do know I’ve been on this ship for a few days now right?”

“Yes and the whole time you’ve been at this gun calibrating. Come on let's go eat something.” He shrugs and turns back towards the console.

“Not exactly hungry Luna.” She pushes him, but he doesn’t budge. 

“Don’t care let's go. Eat with me.” He rolls his eyes and finally stops.

“Fine, but stop embarrassing yourself by trying to move me. If you haven't noticed I am much heavier than you.” She pouts and he laughs.

“You might be heavier, but I could still throw you!” Before she knew it he pins her on the wall his hands holding hers on each side. Luna sucks in her breath.

“I like to see you try.” He whispers in her ears while she glares and wiggles. She then stops and hops up wrapping her legs around his armored waist. That gave him a little pause and she grins.

“What’s wrong Vakarian? Don’t tell me you didn’t expect this.” When he thrusts into her, she lets out a groan and tightens her legs. He could smell her arousal as he kept thrusting into her and she was meeting him with each thrust.

“The things I would do to you right now” he growls and she moans their fingers intertwining.

“Commander Shepard we have arrived at the Citadel,” EDI announces which makes them stop. Their bodies were hot and unsatisfied. Luna takes a deep breath to calm herself and look at Garrus who has his eyes closed.

“So. The Asari Councilor said I need to 'be with you at all times'. What does that mean?”

“It means you need to be on the same station as me. With that rule in place, I would be able to monitor you.” Luna rolls her eyes

“Of course. Well, how long do you think it would take to get off this damn station?” Garrus thought for a moment before nodding.

“About three days if we want the Thannx Cannons I bought for the Normandy to be installed. I could always cancel the order if it's too long. I would still need some time to look over the information we have on Maelon. I don’t think I can get you into the Spectre office, but we can access the information in my apartment.” Luna stares at him.

“Apartment huh?” He shakes his head and laughs.

“Stop thinking like that. This is purely for information.” Luna giggles.

“Don't cancel the order. I’ll tell the crew what’s going to happen. Hopefully, it’s just three days don’t want to stay here for too long.”

Once Luna finish packing for the small sore leave; she made her way out the airlock when she saw her mother about to throw an Admiral off the station.

“This ship is Alliance property!” Her eyebrows raised she walk over to the commotion. 

“This is my ship so don’t associate it to your military.” He glares.

“You stole the blueprints and now you think you have the audacity to actually claim this ship!?” Laena was about to say something when a familiar voice calls out to them.

“Admiral Mikhailovich, there is no need to bother them. They have clearance from the Council.” Luna kept her mouth shut as David Anderson made his way to them a sad smile on his face.

“Admiral Anderson, what brings you here?”

“I just came to see our new guest. You can go now.” They gave each other a solute and David turns back to Laena and Luna.

“It’s nice to see my Goddaughter again. How are things with you Laena?” Both Luna and Laena look at each other before turning back to David. For a moment he thought they hated him, but Luna reaches out and hugs him tightly. He looked surprised before hugging her tightly back.

“I…I am glad to see you again Luna really. I’ve missed you.” Anderson said softy

“Things are okay David. It’s good to see you as well. I am sure John is smiling down on us.” Laena smiles and Luna pulls away.

“Never thought we would see each other again…after I got discharged.” 

“Yeah, I’ve been trying to find ways to get you back on the field; but it seems you’ve taken a liking doing something else? How else do you have such an impressive ship?” He looked worried and Luna laughs. 

“Yes, the work I do is classified but I can assure you I don’t want to be in the Alliance again. There were good times, but the bad times out way them by a lot. You don’t have to support or agree with what I do, but I would love for you not to hate me.”

“Hate you? Baby girl, I could never hate you. I never had children and I see you as my own. Don’t ever think I would hate you.” He brings her head towards him and kisses her forehead. She sighs in happiness.

“What about Kaylee?” Laena chuckles.

“Kaylee and I are on a break. She and I have too much on our plates, and it makes the relationship suffer. I hope one day we can finally just be together once I retire maybe.” Laena frowns thinking of her and John during those times when he would choose work over family. 

Luna pats his shoulder “Well knowing how much you two love each other. You guys would get back together.”

“Hey, Shepard you ready?” Garrus calls out walking towards them. Luna grins. 

“Yeah, I'm ready. By the way, Garrus, this is my Godfather David Anderson. He is an Alliance Admiral, and a very well respected one at that.” Garrus went to shake his hand hoping he isn’t one to hate Turians.

“Nice to meet you, sir.” David took his hand and smile.

“I heard a Turian Spectre is the one to help get immunity for Luna and her crew. I am guessing it was you? I want to say thank you as this makes it easier for us to be a family again.” Laena smiles at family and Luna notices something fuzzy in his Carapace behind his neck.

“Glad to be of help.” The fuzzy object stirs.

_‘Is that you Archangel!?’_

“Uncle David!?” Navi practically jumps out of the Normandy and hugs David. As she talks his ears off Luna grabs Garrus and leads him away from the group.

“Come on let's go.” As they walk Luna looks back at the fuzzy object until Archangel's head pops up, looks at her, and yawns. She giggles.

“Oh my God Archangel what are you doing in there!?” Garrus groans.

“He jumped in there and never left, and I just gave up doing anything.” Archangel went back to sleep and Luna pats Garrus’s back and smiles.

“Well, then this changes where to go. You think we can stop by some shops I need to get food for him and I don’t want to go back to the ship.” He nods.

After shopping for Archangel. They pass by a shop with the name XXX and she was instantly curious. unconsciously her legs moved on their own walking inside the store. Garrus kept walking before noticing she wasn’t around, this gave him a panic since he doesn't know what Luna would do if given the option.

 _'Come on, Shepard isn't a kid. Although, there is a good chance she might cause problems just for a laugh or to annoy the Council.'_ He thought. Chuckling at the thought of an annoyed Council; he spots where she went just in time to see her walk into the XXX store. His body heat increases as he made his way over to her making sure no one was watching. 

“What are you doing?” He whispers quickly.

“Looking.” She whispers innocently while the Hanar shop keeper was quiet. 

He notices a gag that was being used by a human in one of the advertisements in the store. His mind flashes with Luna in that position and he looks away.

“This was not what I expect you to be looking at right now.”

“Look at this!” He turns his head and sees a toy shaped as a Turian dick in the catalog she was looking through. 

“What about it?”

“I want it.” He pauses and blinks while she smiles sweetly at him. 

“Really?” 

“Why not right?” She shrugs. 

_‘She must be joking’_

“Go ahead. I won’t stop you.” She giggles and clicks away. 

“Do you want anything?” She asks while scrolling at all the possible toys. Garrus kept his mouth shut but saw multiple bondage options. Each time she passes by them he would picture her in them. 

“I…uh…no?” She looks at him and pouts.

“Nothing?” He scratches his neck.

“Maybe a few things. I usually buy for Turian women though.”

“Okay sure, but what about non-Turian women?” She grins as her eyebrows wiggles at him; his eyes grew wide open.

“I...yes. I wouldn't mind getting some for you; but only if you want!” He said quickly scared of her reaction. She grins thinking of the possibilities. 

“Then I’ll pick whatever I want you to use on me. Give me your address and it will be sent there.” He laughs.

“Where’s the fun in that? I prefer to surprise you.” Luna’s mouth went wide and she giggles after.

“Alright now I am excited. I’ll wait for you outside so I won't see what you have in store for me.” 

“Wait! Are you sure I mean…I was just joking around.” She looked at him sadly and offended.

“What? Just joking?” He wanted to run and hide at the awkwardness of it all.

“I mean no! Yes! Wait…ugh…look after what you told me last night I don’t want to make things…weird…” She huffs.

“Garrus come on. Just surprise me and if I don’t like what you bought I will tell you, deal?” He blinks; from the corner of his eye he saw a bondage harness and pictured Luna is it. Swallowing he nods.

“Deal.”

_‘Spirits what am I getting myself into?’_

When she left Garrus coughs while avoiding looking at the Hanar then clicks away before buying everything and sending it to his apartment. 

It was the Citadel night cycle when they reached his apartment building. While on the elevator they had a small chat about Maelon and guessing why he is with the Krogans.

“Do you think he’s even alive at this point? Maybe they took and killed him.” Luna asked while walking out the elevator behind Garrus.

“I don’t know. Have the Shadow Broker told you anything? Anything that might give clues into if he’s alive or not.”

“He gave me good information, but I also want to know what you have on him so we could compare and contrast the information. Just know you owe him a lot of money.” Garrus sighs and before agree he saw Iika standing at his door, waiting.

“Garrus! I am so happy to…” She pauses as she looks at Luna who was staring at her in confusion. “Who is this?”

“Well, then this is awkward.” Luna whispers and Garrus groans.

“Why don’t you go into the apartment I’ll talk with her okay?” Luna nods and makes her way to the door, but Iika blocks her.

“You are not allowed in there.” Rolling her eyes Luna crosses her arm.

“Listen, I am on a schedule and don't have time for this. In there is information I need for my job, so if you could just move that would be great.” Iika glares at her, and Garrus steps in between them. 

“Iika please don’t start anything. Let's just talk.” She gave angry sounds before pushing Garrus away.

“No! Who is this Human!? Is this her!?” Quickly before Garrus could react Iika pins Luna against the wall, hard. This causes Luna to gasp at the pain and glare at the Turian.

“Get. The. Fuck. Off. Me.” She growls, but Iika did no such thing. Instead, she stares at the bond-mark, puts her head forward, and sniffs. In seconds Iika can smell something that wasn’t human. This smell was different, wrong. Luna pushes her off and glares.

Iika looked at her in fear, this made Luna a bit worried. “You’re…what are you?! A freak?!” 

Garrus' eyes grow wide and before he can do anything Luna screams causing Iika to hit the wall. Her eyes were black while Iika was coughing and shaking looking at Luna. Before Luna can use an ability at her Garrus jumps in the way and holds her tight.

“Iika you need to leave!” He screams as Luna was ready to scream again. In a panic, he places his mouth plates on her lips to make her stop. She was crying, but the kiss was calming her down. Her eyes were still black as they stare at Garrus and she collapses into his arms. 

He picks her up bridal style and walks to his open door where Iika was still sitting there in shock. He glares at her.

“Just go. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Why her? Can’t you see sh-” The door shuts and they were alone in his apartment. 

He didn’t know what to do. Even after last night, this was still new to him as he stares at her sitting there on his couch. She wasn’t moving and he questions if she was breathing. Confirming that she was he sighs. Her eyes were still dark as the abyss and her mouth was closed.

“Come on Shepard come back to me.” His hand touches her cheek. Seeing that not working he leans his head on her hoping to get her out of this state.

“It’s me, Luna. It’s Garrus.” She closes her eyes and whimpers.

“Garrus,” he nods slowly and pulls away seeing her eyes back to normal made his mandibles twitch in happiness. 

“Hey.” She puts her hands on her face and cries.

“I’m a miserable mess. I can’t even control my feelings when people call me what I am.” Garrus glares at her.

“Stop, you’re not a freak. You’re not a ‘mess’. Don’t let the words of a scorned lover get to you.” He says taking her hands from her face and looking her in the eyes. 

“Garrus,” She whispers and then starts to laugh watching as Archangel jump from his Carapace to stretch and curl up on one of his chairs. Garrus looks away from the cat and laughs.

“I didn’t even know he was still there.” After they had a good laugh Garrus stands up and starts walking towards his computer. 

“Who is she Garrus? A girlfriend? Is…she the one you couldn’t bond with?” He stops in his tracks and looks down sighing.

“No, she’s a woman I’ve been having a fling with. She’s in love with me, but I don’t want to be with her. I told her ahead of time how I see things, but she didn’t see it that way. Instead, she thought the longer she stays with me I would fall in love with her.”

“So you didn't think to stop the exchange before?” He groans.

“It wasn't supposed to get this bad.” She shook her head.

“You really should have been straight with her. Even if she hated you, even if she told you to not let her go. You should have set her free and stop seeing her.” He looked down in shame.

“I…know I should have. Before I went to find you I planned on just settling with her you know? I told myself that’s the least I could do.” She bit her lips.

“My first boyfriend, when I was fifteen, did that Garrus. It…didn't end well at all. I ended up having major trust issues when it came to men after that.”

“And you are right. I plan on talking to her soon face to face ending it officially, but until then let’s focus on the mission okay?” She nods and after a while smile at him.

“Mind if I take a shower before we start?” Luna asks standing up. Garrus' apartment only had two floors and everything was pretty open aside from his bathroom. His bed was upstairs overlooking his living room. Left of his entrance was his kitchen and to the right was his office and bathroom. The windows were large enough to look through from the first and second floor of the apartment.

“Yeah, the bathroom is over here.” He takes a seat at his desk and begins to type away.

“You have a very luxurious apartment by the way Garrus.”

“Being Spectre has its perks. It’s not that big though so it isn’t as expensive as let’s say a three-bedroom apartment.” She giggles and makes her way into the bathroom and starts to shower.

Garrus takes off his armor and relaxes as he continues to look through the Spectre vault trying to find as much information out about Maelon. Archangel also found himself on Garrus' lap who unconsciously starts to pet him. He was greeted with a video of the Salarian and when he saw the Krogan he was with Garrus was pissed.

“You have got to be kidding me.” Garrus narrows his eyes growling at the Krogan as if he was there. Before he can look more into the Krogan Luna walks out of the bathroom messing with her hair. The towel she was using was wrapped around her body like a dress. Garrus was instantly hit with the smell and he felt his lower plates shift.

“Got anything, big guy?” He watches as she shoos the cat off his lap and took its seat. He inhales her smells. 

“I think he enjoyed that spot.” She rolls her eyes.

“Yeah well, I want this spot now.” He notices her hair wasn’t wet.

“I thought your hair would be wet.” She laughs leaning her back against his chest.

“Yeah, but these towels are amazing! No need to wait for hair to dry or change from towel to clothes. If the towel gets a bit loose all I have to do is touch this area and it tightens back on me. God, I love the future!” As she talked she was bouncing a bit causing Garrus to internally groan. He closes his eyes willing himself to calm down. 

When he opens his eyes he gave her body a quick look noting the scars on her arms, back, and legs. Remembering last night he sighs sadly and she notices.

“What’s wrong big guy?”

“Just realizing I now know where the scars came from.” When she tenses up he wraps his arms around her waist and lays his head on her back.

“Yeah…there was a lot of cutting to get within my body. This nasty looking one on my neck was when I was stabbed pretty hard by 'the boss' he was called. It's my last memory of being a slave; I have a lot of scars, but this one always reminds me of who I was...what I am. God...I remember when they even…” She stops and gasps for air when she thought about the organs.

“You don’t have to tell me anything Shepard. Just know I am here for you.” She shook her head.

“I don’t want to think about it anymore Garrus. Can we stop talking about my ugly body?” He sat there stunned. 

“Ugly? I’m sorry what? Have you seen me?” She tried not to laugh but failed and giggled.

“Not the same!”

“My fringe is too long, waist too pointy, and let’s not even talk about my mandibles.” She laughs.

“Would you shut up! You look amazing Garrus.” He pulls her in tight.

“And you look beautiful Shepard. Plus your scars are amazing, shows how much of a badass you are.” He whispers huskily and she bits her lips feeling aroused by his voice.

“Y-your just saying that to make me feel better. I hate pity.” His tongue licks her neck and she whimpers.

“No pity here Shepard I find scars very attractive.” 

“But…I have so many.”

“Just means more to admire.”

“I’m not going to win this battle huh?” He chuckles still holding onto her.

“Nope, but I’m not going to stop until you admit you are beautiful” She shook her head and pouts while crossing her arms.

“Not going to happen, Sir.” When she said sir for some reason it really turned him on. He’s been called master, patriarch, and captain before but not Sir. Hearing her say that made him almost caused him to slip out of his plates.

“Well, guess this is war, Shepard. Hope you are ready.” She giggles.

“I guess so Sir.” He swallows when she says it again.

“Alright let’s focus, I found out which Krogan he’s with. His name is Garm and he is the leader of the Blood Pack.” She leans forward elbow on the desk as she studies the video. Garrus clutches his teeth at her movement.

_‘Focus!’_

“I know Garm. God, he was a piece of shit and a bastard of a Krogan! The Shadow Broker intel told me it was mostly Blood Pack involved in this, but not Garm.” Luna leans back onto his chest again and starts typing into her Omni-tool.

“Anything?”

“Well at the moment no. I am looking into my Blood Pack contacts. I hope none of them got dealt with or this is going to be annoying.” Garrus sighs. Smelling her again broke his restraint he couldn’t take it anymore and slip out of his plates. She stops typing for a moment but begins again.

“B-Blood Pack contacts huh?” He gasps out trying to calm himself. Luna giggles.

“Having a hard time focusing Garrus?” He laughs mockingly.

“Very funny Shepard.” She stops giggling and quickly gets up when she suddenly felt the pain in her body starting. This in turn gave him a nice view of her ass; instantly his hand reaches up and squeezes her ass. She gasps forgetting the pain momentarily and swats his hand away. When she was going to tease him the pain increases making her groan.

“Hey, you mind helping me with my medication? Dr.Chakwas made sure to give me some just in case. Thing is I am deathly afraid of needles and need to be distracted.” His brow plates lifted and he chuckles.

“If you need a distraction I can think of a way to provide you with one.” She smiles and heads over to her bags.

“Great! Here take this.” Giving him the syringe filled with her medication.

“Where does it need to go?” She sighs in fear looking at it.

“You just need to inject me anywhere with it.” He nods and prepares the needle, she groans. Thinking of an idea he nods to himself and heads upstairs. This left her confused. When he came back his mandibles twitched in nervousness hoping this idea doesn’t scare her.

“Sit on the counter, close your eyes, and don’t open them until I tell you to.” Rolling her eyes she crosses her arms.

“I’ve already seen the needle nothing will let me forget it’s there.” She pouts as the burning feeling was starting to bother her. Not waiting for her he picks up her and drops her on the counter as she gasps.

“Just do as I say okay?” She saw his eyes begging her and she sighs.

“Yes Sir.” Intense desire pass by his face, but she didn’t question it instead she closes her eyes and felt a cloth cover them. At first, she starts to panic wondering what the hell he’s about to do. The thought of the needle was making her powers go haywire.

“Lay your hands on the counter.”

“Garrus…” She panics.

“Trust me.” Giving it a chance she did what she was told, and her brain was playing tricks on her believing she was feeling the needle. Until she felt something soft? The feeling made her shiver. Then she felt something soft on her back and she shivers again.

“Garrus what are you doing?” He chuckles.

“Can’t tell you it’s a secret.” She then felt his hand on her arm feeling it up and down lightly. The feeling was helping her feel relaxed and having him tough her was turning her on.

“Garrus…”

“Can I use my talons on you?” She nods and begins to feel his talons gently scratching her on her arm. She moans biting her lips when she opens her eyes all she saw was the cloth. Everything was pitch black.

“Call me Sir again.” He whispers and she whimpers at his talons again. The pain from him made her want so much more. 

“Yes…Sir.” She felt him pull back and she groan in frustration until she felt a tongue on her neck licking at her…his mark.

“Again.”

“Yes Sir.” He continues to lick and now she was grinding on the counter trying to find a release. He kept running his talons all over her arms and licking her.

“Do you want to cum for me, Luna?” When he said her name with his deep voice she moans cumming as she grinds on the counter.

“Yes Sir…Yes Sir…Yes!” She was on cloud nine as she came not feeling the prick of on her waist and the blindfolds came off. She saw Garrus grinning as he looked at her. Looking down she saw how hard he was and licked her lips.

“Worked like a charm.” She noticed the syringe was empty. 

“How? When?” He chuckles.

“While you were cumming for me I did it. I was hoping you would focus on different feelings rather than the pain of a needle. Although, did not think you would cum.” She was breathing hard as her legs were wide open. Looking down again she stares at his hardened cock that was behind his clothes.

“You need help big guy?” He sucks in a breath and shook his head.

“No, I’m just going to shower. Why don’t you do something in the meantime?” She bit her lips still staring.

“I am pretty hungry. I’ll cook something for us how about that?” He chuckles.

“You know how to cook?” She laughs and hops off the counter heading to the fridge.

“You wound me Garrus. Of course, I could, who do you think cooked for Navi when my mother was super busy?” He puts his arms up and chuckles.

“Sorry, sorry. Just please don’t burn my home down.” He dodges a chips bag from the counter and heads to the bathroom.

When in the shower Garrus takes a breath trying to calm himself down and allow the hot water too steep into his body. He begins to think.

First things first, Iika. Iika was a problem, but he did feel bad. Knowing her it wouldn’t take long before his father finds out about what happened…and Luna. He groans silently. 

It was his fault after all since he allowed the relationship to last as long as it did. He just didn’t care for his happiness, but that wasn’t an excuse. Being with someone you don’t care for wasn’t right of him.

_‘You led her on’_

_‘You don’t deserve anything’_

_‘Worthless’_

They were back, the ghosts. He sighs trying to tune them out. At least they helped with his erection causing it to unhardened and slide back inside.

_‘How can you let us die?!’_

_‘How could you let Garm kill us!?’_

_‘You Killed Us! You Killed Us!’_

_‘Why did we die, but you get to live?’_

“SHUT UP!” He pounds the wall with his fist and sighs.

“Garrus? You okay?”

“Y…yeah” He stutters forgetting about the other occupant in his home. 

“Want to talk about it?” She asks through the door.

“No, it’s okay really. I’ll be out in a minute.” He heard an okay and continues his shower.

Walking out the bathroom he curses noticing he didn’t bring any change of clothes. Wrapping a towel around his waist he walks out. Seeing Luna’s ass was something he hopes to keep seeing; he was beginning to feel obsessed with that part of her body. She was bending forward on the counter as she read something on her Omni-tool while the pot on the stove was cooking.

He got behind her and pushes into her which makes her gasp. He could smell her arousal again which made him slip right out of his plates.

“What you looking at?” He whispers in her ears and she shivers. 

“I…the food. Seeing how long to wait.” She turns around looking at him with a smile. 

“I thought you knew how to cook.” She slaps his arm.

“I do you asshole! Doesn’t mean I can’t look of some good Turian food.” He laughs and leans down sniffing her unconsciously. She stiffens and he panics.

“Sorry, your smell is really intoxicating. Doesn’t help that you are very aroused right now.” She looks away shyly. 

“No, it’s just…how do I smell? I…I mean do I smell different? Lik-”

“If you’re about to say freak don’t because no you don’t smell like a freak. You do, however, have a different smell from Humans. Every Human has a different smell, but they all have this certain smell that indicates they are Human. You on the other hand have something different that doesn’t smell completely Human, but you shouldn’t see it as a bad thing, Shepard!” She looks away a sad expression on her face. He takes her chin and makes her look at him.

“I’ve always known I smelled different. Usually, I am told by assholes who know nothing about me so I never listen.”

“So you listen to a female Turian you never met?” She looks away.

“Well you know her, and after what happened in the battery. That word is still fresh in my head.” She hesitates at her next question, but gains the courage to ask, “What do I smell like?”

“I don’t have any words for it, but you smell amazing. So what if it’s different if anything it means you are one of a kind.” She pokes him. 

“That is so...cheesy. Thank you.” He chuckles. 

“This is the part you admit you’re beautiful.” She giggles and kisses one of his mandibles.

“Not going to win this war that easily big guy!” 

While they were eating everything was quiet as Luna was reading some data from her Omni-tool about Maelon and Garrus was looking out the window watching the sky cars fly. They were still in their towels which gave Garrus a nice view of her breast when she moves her arms.

“I know you are looking at my breast big guy.” He leans back in his chair finishing with his food.

“I mean it's so...different. I've done some research on 'breast' but looking at yours is just a new experience. Prefer your ass though.” They laughed and she grins while putting her Omni-tool away. He gave her an odd expression.

"What?"

"Sorry if this is out of the blue, but do you like pain? As in a sexual way." She looks away embarrassed.

"Do you really have to ask?" His mandibles twitch in anticipation.

"Just wondering, because ever time I use my talons on you. You seem to really like it." She inhales before looking him in the eye.

"Yes, I like pain. Not a crazy amount of course, but a good amount of pain, such as from your talons, really gets me going. Doesn't mean I like getting abused in bed. It just means...I like sleeping with someone who will be rough with me in bed sometimes. I never fully accepted it, until that night we had sex when you were Archangel. I did have one other 'lover' after our night and they helped me find my pain tolerance." He was silent as she spoke thinking of ways he could be rough with her.

When she was finished talking she thought about what she said wondering if she was weird for even enjoying pain after what she's been through, but how can she ignore the pleasure whenever there were painful sensations?

Trying to distract herself she looked over his shoulder and notices the cat bowl was partially empty.

“Archangel?” She calls out and heard nothing. Garrus scanned the room trying to find the little guy.

“Please tell me he didn’t get into any wires.” Luna rolls her eyes and stands up.

“Angel isn’t like that. Come on help me look I’ll check upstairs you look down here.” As they search for the cat Luna came across Garrus’s closet. When she opens it Archangel jumps out knocking over some boxes and meows at her. She puts her hands on her hips.

“How do you manage to just put yourself places I just don’t know.”

“Found him?” Garrus asks calling out to her from the first floor.

“Yeah, let me clean up this mess though.”

“Mess?” She hears him panic and laughs.

“Just a few boxes relax.” He sighs.

“Well alright. When you're done we can talk about sleeping arrangements.”

“Uh…huh,” She starts pilling up the boxes trying to put everything in order. Until her eyes caught a Fornax label on a datapad.

“You can have the couch while I have the bed of course. After all, it is my apartment.”

“Yup,” she hums while scrolling the material. It was just Turian porn which was fine, but the way some of these women were positioned made Luna wonder.

“I mean yes you are a female guest and you should be comfortable, but I like my bed.”

“Yeah of course,” she can feel herself getting wet watching the mini videos of tied up Turian females with a ball gag in their mouth.

_‘Why is this turning me on? It’s Turians!’_

“You know what…have the bed. I feel bad for even saying you have the couch.”

“It’s okay Garrus.” She quietly moans as she touches herself lightly to a very flexible Turian female as the male Turian has his way with her while grabbing her neck. When the mini video was over she scrolls even further down looking for more vids to have a release.

“Is everything ok up there?”

“Yes!” She looks over the balcony with a smile on her face as she sees Garrus about to get up from the couch. “Just you know cleaning up. My cat, my responsibility right?” He sits back down and turns back toward the television. Archangel jumping on his lap and laying down.

“Alright, if you need help call me.”

“Y…yeah,” She was fingering herself to a different video, but this time it was a Human female and male Turian. Luna was bent on the ground one hand balled into a fist while the other was rubbing her clit aggressively.

_‘Hurry, so close’_

“I did say if you need help to call me” Luna stops and spins around. Sitting on her ass she looks up and sees Garrus looking at her with a tent from his towel. She bites her lips.

“Sorry I got…um…distracted.” He picks up the Fornax and chuckles.

“Distracted again huh? Really? By my old Fornax?”

“Old?”

“Yeah, this was two years ago picked it up during my Spectre training.”

“You subscribed to Human-Turian?”

“After our night on Omega, I was very curious. We did things, but not everything. Human-Human wasn’t doing anything for me. Turian-Turian was getting boring. So I gave it a shot, and I enjoyed it. Then I meet Iika and decided to stop. Didn’t need my hand when I have the real thing.” Luna laughs and leans back with her hands flat on the floor. Her legs were wide open and Garrus can smell her arousal tenfold it was like a heavy smell that hit is senses. 

“I was getting hot and bothered by your Turian-Turian porn. I never knew female Turians were so flexible. There was so much tied up, gagged, and the foreplay! Now I am really curious about the toys you bought for me! The thought gets me so horny.” Garrus was quiet, but Luna kept laughing. She stops when looking at him noticing the desire in his eyes and his tented towel.

With a smile, she got on her knees and crawl over to him pulling the tower down. There it was standing hard and blue with ridges just like the time in Dantius Towers. It was sticky as if having its own lube.

“Have you ever got a blow job before?” He looks at her with confusion.

“Blowjob? What’s a blowjob? Are you going to blow on it? If so Humans are definitely weird.” She laughs and takes a hold of his cock which makes him groan quietly.

“No, Vakarian. This is a blowjob.” Before he can say anything she kisses his tip and then licks gently. He drew in his breath as she starts to take it in her mouth testing her limits. Pulling away from his cock she bends her head and starts to use her tongue to lick around. He was breathing heavily and she smiles looking into his eyes. 

“So this is…a…blowjob huh? Turian women's mouths are n…not meant to do this. I have gotten it licked before though.” She glares at him and pulls away.

“Don’t really want to hear about other women licking your cock while I suck it, Sir.” He started to chuckle until he heard her say, Sir; and he swallows.

Taking his hand she places it on her head and resumes taking his cock in her mouth deeply. He groans as he felt the back of her throat and his hand grabs her head pushes her lightly to keep going but not trying to choke her. 

She tastes something sweet? Usually, it is salty for Human males, but it seems Turians have a sweet taste to them, and she liked it. He looked down at her seeing her red eyes staring up at him as she sucked him off. Watching his cock appear and disappear in her beautiful mouth was erotic. 

She suddenly stopped by the tip and grabbed his cock while looking up innocently stroking him.

“Do you like my blowjob, Sir?” When she said sir again he swore under his breath.

“Spirits Luna, yes.” She giggles before taking it back inside her mouth. He was panting quietly and watched her hands reach under her. As she starts to moan it caused a vibration which made him growl and she bobs her head faster while fingering herself.

He was close.

His head leans back with eyes closed as he was enjoying the feeling of her wet soft mouth.

_‘She's really good at this!’_

Luna was so wet as she listens to him moan loudly and it was all because of her. She wants him inside of her so bad and thinking of it made her moan louder before cumming on her hands. 

“Spirits!” He groans loudly before exploding in her mouth. She continues to move her head back and forth while swallowing.

_‘So sweet!’_

She thought before she pulls her mouth off and looks up at him. A smile presented on her face as she shakenly stands up and places her hands on his chest trying to steady herself. Standing on her tippy toes she licks his mandibles causing him to groan and grab her ass squeezing hard while using his talons making her moan. She grinds on him noticing he was still hard. Pulling away from him she looks down.

“Not good enough? Blowjobs usually worked for my ex.” She bit her lips and his mandibles twitch in annoyance.

“Can you not compare me to your ex while we are both in this situation?” She gave an apologetic stare

“I’m sorry.” He sighs

“Also, no I’m just pent up. I have been fighting my urges ever since Navi stop our kiss on Omega.” She looks at him shocked.

“What?” He laughs scratching the back of his neck.

“Yeah. Calibrating was helping me relax and forget, but being alone with you can really get me going.” She gives him a seductive smile before taking off her towel and laying on the bed.

“Well big guy I’m all yours.” She whispers looking at his very hard cock. He was ready to take her but stops looking at her scars again. She became insecure by him looking and tries hiding them by using her hands to cover herself.

“We can just turn off the lights.” He snaps his attention to her face and saw her looking sad. 

“What? No! I told you before I find them very attractive.” Pulling her to him he starts to lick at her scars starting from her chest area.

“Garrus!”

“You’re beautiful.” He starts to trace the scars with his thumb and she looks away shaking her head.

“These scars are painful reminders of what I was, and I’m too afraid to get rid of them. This one was when I was seven and I-”

“This one is mines.” He cuts her off and she stares at him confused. “They’re all mines.” She giggles and looks away from him.

“You’re a fool.” He continues to trace the scars before picking her up.

“Let me show you then.” He takes her to the other side of the bed and pulls her into his lap. She was confused before looking ahead and seeing a mirror. Instantly she looks away cringing at her ugliness.

“Garrus come on. I don’t want to look at my body. Why don’t we just have sex?” He licks her neck and takes his hands guiding them from her waist to behind her knees. Opening her legs he lifts her slightly up and begins to rub his hard cock on her slit making her moan. She uses her right arm to hang on his neck still looking away from the mirror.

“Look at yourself.” He commands and she hesitates but moans begging him to fuck her. 

“Please Garrus. I am way too horny to go to war with you right now.”

“Not until you look at yourself.” She rolls her eyes and laughs before looking at herself for a moment, but looks away still cringing.

“There I looked at myself. Now could you please fuck me?” She begs again, he chuckles and stands up. She gasps.

“I want you to see what I see. I want you to see your beauty.” She groans in annoyance closing her eyes tight.

“Too many scars. Too many bad memories. What happened to the Turian that would fuck me and tell me what to do in bed?” He was now in front of the mirror staring at her body. There were many scars, but he found them endearing. With her legs open wide he can see her wetness and her pulsing clit. He wants to be deep inside, but he wanted her to see her beauty.

“I told you already these are my scars. They are full of good memories every single one.” He whispers in her eyes and she shivers. 

“Garrus” Her arousal was driving him crazy and he rubs himself on her clit making her shake.

“Look at yourself and I’ll give you what you want” He growls and she gasps turning her eyes towards the mirror looking at herself. It was so erotic staring at herself in this position and it made her nervous. Until he finally enters her. 

“Yes!” She grins leaning her head back digging her nails into his cowl. When he didn’t move she was breathing hard, “Why…why did you stop?” he licks her neck.

“Look at yourself.” She groans closing her eyes and pouts.

“I look so-”

“Beautiful” She bites her lips before looking into the mirror. She saw him looking at her his eyes rolling all over her body. She shivers again wanting to look away but did what he says.

“I am looking just like you said. Are you going to fuck me now?” Watching herself talk so vulgar made her feel embarrassed.

“If you look away I will stop. That is your punishment.” He begins to lift her up and down setting a nice pace. Every time she would close her eyes he would stop to her disappointment. 

“You are punishing yourself doing this Garrus” She breaths heavily looking at herself in the mirror; she was sweating and was trying not to moan.

“I want you to see what I see. I want you to call yourself beautiful. A-and let me be the victor of this war.” Watching herself was like watching a Fornax vid and it strangely turned her on. When she went to touch her clit to rub he stops and it made her groan.

“No,” She reluctantly pulls her hand away and moans when he continues. Up and down she went as he filled her up with his cock, and she was watching it. Watching his cock slide in and out of her was electrifying; he even looks bigger from this perspective.

“Touch yourself.” He grunts in her ears and she listens. Rubbing her clit while moaning at every thrust. 

_‘This is amazing!’_

She thought with her legs wide open watching his cock disappear inside of her then reappear. Her breast was bouncing up and down, she was breathing heavily, and she was loving it. Pulling her arm away from his neck she starts to squeeze her nipples and rubbing her clit harder. He could feel her tighten around his cock and he pants.

“Stop touching yourself.” She didn’t listen, but when he stops she did. She groans in frustration but stops touching herself and kept staring in the mirror watching her body react to the fucking while biting her fingers fighting the urge to rub her clit. When looking at his face she notices his visor was doing something.

“Ar…are you…recor…ding this?!” He chuckles looking her in the eyes through the mirror.

“Maybe,” He starts to thrust harder increasing the pace and she moans louder. He would constantly tell her to touch herself and whenever she was close tell her to stop. It was driving her insane. Looking at the mirror she watches her facial expressions. Her eyes would close halfway when she is about to reach her climax, and she would glare in disappointment when he tells her to stop touching herself. 

“Spirits you’re beautiful.” He groans pumping faster and she rubs her clit and nipples. He wasn’t stopping her anymore since he was close, but she kept looking at herself. 

She notices every curve of her body. The way her thighs were shaped. How well tone her arms and legs were. How cute her red eyes were. How long her curly hair was. How beautiful her brown skin looked like Milk Chocolate, which is the best chocolate in her opinion. Last but not least, her scars. They have haunted her for years and she was sick of it.

_‘No more! My Scars will not dictate how I feel about myself! I am beautiful and no one will tell me otherwise!’_

As she kept staring at herself in the mirror she begins to feel the pressure building up within her. Looking at Garrus through the mirror she starts to plead to him.

“Please let me cum! Please! Please!” She begs, rubbing her clit harder. She was so close as her pussy tightens around his cock. He moans her name and breathes harder than before. Staring at her in the mirror he could tell she finally saw what he sees.

“Cum for me,” She moans getting closer. “Cum for me, Luna.” She watches as her eyes went wide and she screams his name loudly with her body shaking. As she stares at her eyes she notices her pupils expanding and took over her eyes. It was beautiful. 

_‘So that’s how it works’_

Garrus wasn’t done yet, but he was still close. She leans back, puts her arm around his neck kissing and licking his mandibles.

“Come on Sir.” She whispers squeezing her walls on his cock. He groans, dropping one of her legs to her surprise, then grabs her waist, leans her against the mirror, and brings her other leg straight up while holding it by the ankle. She braces her left arm against the mirror for support as her right-hand rubs her clit getting closer to another climax. 

He thrusts rougher and irregularly before finally cumming thrusting deep within her; she moans loudly coming a second time. He pulls back then thrusts deep within her again emptying himself. Pulling out with a groan, he stumbles backward sitting on the bed with eyes closed breathing heavily. Luna’s body was shaking as she holds onto the wall trying not to fall. She felt sore and sensitive. 

Turning her head towards the mirror she smiles at her unkempt hair and sweating body. Her scars were still there, but she feels beautiful. Sexy.

“Di…did I…win the war?” Garrus pants looking at her from his position noticing the look in her eyes. She giggles and limps towards him straddling his lap.

“Yes…I am beautiful. There I said it.” His mandibles twitch in happiness and she kisses him. Their tongues move around lazily and sloppily, but they didn’t care. Taking a breath Garrus stands up and her legs wrapped securely on his waist. He then looks her in the eyes with a serious expression.

"I know this isn't going to just magically make you believe you are beautiful forever. I know you would still struggle. But I hope, I hope this has helped you in some way." She looked surprised for a moment as a few tears fell from her eyes at his statement because it was true. Even when her ex told her she was beautiful she would end up dismissing it after some time. He held her tightly making sure to give her Turian sounds for comfort and she whimpers laying her head on his neck.

_‘He's so strong. I feel so safe in his arms.’_

"Thank you so much for understanding." He gets her to her feet and she crawls into bed with a smile on her face that wouldn't go away. 

"Won the battle, not the war damn." He whispers and she giggles.

"This war is going to be a long one are you prepared?" She asked jokingly snuggling up in the covers as he stood there looking at her with a serious expression.

"Until my last breath." She stops laughing and blinks.

"Garrus...?" He yawns.

“So about the sleeping arrangements?” He asks as his eyes were shutting his energy spent. She was going to ask him what that was about but ended up yawning after him. 

“You. Me. This bed. Let’s go” The lights came off and she lays on her side eyes closing feeling the fatigue of her body. She then felt him slip into the bed behind her. When she didn’t feel his arms around her after a minute passed she sighs sadly.

_‘Come on Luna why does it matter. His arms aren’t what yo-’_

He grabs her waist and pulls her into his chest; her head under his.

“Much better” he whispers and Luna entwines their fingers together.

“Garrus.”

“Hmm?”

“Thank you for helping me see my beauty.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, how are you today? It's me Insane the writer. So we did it! Finally made it to chapter 10 without giving up! Want to say congrats and thank you VERY much to all of you amazing readers who got this far. I hope this wasn't too long. I wanted to cut some things out, but to me, everything worked pretty well together and I couldn't delete any of the scenes in this chapter.
> 
> I hope people are enjoying my story even if it's silently lol (I am also a silent reader). As I create more chapters (I am up to chapter 16) I do feel a bit insecure about my work, because of the themes within it. How the characters work. How the Universe works. I know this is quite uh...different from the other stories in this fandom, and I hope it hasn't turned you off.
> 
> Anyway! No questions just wanted to say helloooo and thank you for reading this far my lovely silent (and unsilent) readers!


	11. Sins Of a Mother

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Laena opens up about her past to Garrus and Luna meets Solana

Garrus woke up feeling content for the first time after the death of his crew. Not seeing their ghosts during and after his sleep was a plus as well.

Looking down he saw the sleeping face of Shepard. Her mouth was slightly open and there was a bit of drool. Taking his hand he moves a little of her hair that covered her face touching her cheek. His heart was racing and he knew what he was feeling.

_‘I still love my ex.’_

Garrus pulls back from touching her face and sighs.

_‘It would be wrong to be with you at this time.’_

He pulls away from her entirely, sits up with his back towards her, and leans into his hands with his head down. This wasn’t what he wanted nor needed in his life right now. Catching feelings for a criminal was not in his book. Of all the Humans in the galaxy to be bonded with it just to be her.

“Fuck…” He thought before his Omni-tool made a sound. Looking to see who it was he saw it was from his sister.

“Hey, Sol.” She appears and grins.

_“Hey Garrus, how’s your morning so far?”_

“Good, surprisingly. I feel very good right now.” 

_“Wow, where is my brooding brother? This man right here is so different!”_

“Don’t worry give it a few minutes I’ll start brooding again. So what’s up? Why did you call?”

_“Because you’re my brother and I demand to talk to you once in a while. Also, I am on the Citadel and would love to meet up and have breakfast.”_

He looked surprised at her, “Wait…Citadel? Sol, I thought you have a few more months of military training.” She giggles.

_“Well yes, but they saw my skills and thought I could become an intern! They gave me multiple locations, but I choose the Citadel because my brother and boyfriend live there.”_

“Boyfriend?” He was starting to feel overprotective and she rolls her eyes.

_“I’m nineteen years old, old man I can have a boyfriend. Bonus point’s dad loves him! Now, are you going to meet me and have breakfast?”_

“Fine, but just know if he hurts you I’m a Spectre. By the way, where are you staying? Do you need to sleep here?” She laughs.

_“Uh…no! I live with him silly! And before you go all overprotective, we’ve known each other for three years now.”_

“Three years huh? Time sure flies. I’ll join you for breakfast. Feeling pretty hungry and it would be nice to finally speak with you face to face.” She smiles.

_“Yeah, I agree. You can also bring that Human female behind you as well.”_

“What?” He turns around to see Shepard rubbing her eyes and looking towards him.

 _“Why is she naked? Oh! Is that your mark on her!?...gasps… Is that her? Is that your Bond-Mate?!”_ His eye went wide and he panicked at the slew of questions.

“Solana I’ll call you later bye.”

_“Wa-”_

Luna slowly opens her eyes and stares at him then smiles.

“Morning Sir. How did you sleep?” He cursed himself for feeling excited seeing her wake up beside him and of course, she uses Sir.

“I slept well…uh, why do you keep calling me Sir?” The only time he told her to call him that was during her injection. As much as he enjoyed hearing her say it, he was curious about why. She gave him a seductive smile.

“I noticed whenever I say it you get this look in your eyes. I don’t know sometimes it would slip out. I could stop if you want.”

“NO! I mean…no I like it when you call me Sir.”

“Oh? I’ll keep that in mind.” She said while lazily smiling.

He coughs, “Remember the store we were in?”

“The sex store, yes” He looked down in embarrassment, having to explain this to someone with her past is going to be awkward.

“Well, there is a sort of play we Turians like to do. Not all of us of course, but I enjoy it. The women I’ve been with enjoyed it.” 

She nods, “I know what play you are talking about no need to explain. I’m not a prune you know. I will admit I never thought I would be into it. My ex-boyfriend was a romantic. You know like kind, sweet, and gentle. He would never hurt me in bed.” She smiles sadly at fond memories. 

Garrus’ eyes went dark, “Sorry, I’m not your ex-boyfriend,” He spat. 

She was taken aback, “Whoa, big guy.” She said looking at him in confusion. 

He mentally punched himself, “Comparing me to your ex is…really annoying. Sorry,” He admits.

She bit her lips and nods, “You’re right and it was rude of me to do so, I’m sorry.” She said then reaches out and touches his chest his anger instantly melts again.

“It’s okay sorry for acting that way.” He looked at her with a sad expression and she giggles.

“It’s fine Garrus! Now before we start saying sorry back and forth I need to brush my teeth and eat! I am starving.” She hops out of bed scaring Archangel who was sleeping at the foot of it. Garrus chuckles still sitting on his side of the bed.

“Well if you are starving we can head out and have breakfast with my sister. She asked if you wanted to have breakfast with her.” She turns to him and gave him an O-face.

“You want me to meet your sister!? I am honored.” She does a little bow with her head and giggles.

“Yeah well, it’s the least I could do. Seeing how I’ve met your sister and all.” She smiles and after a brief silence, she quickly jumps back onto the bed and crawls towards him. Quickly, she pulls him towards her and kisses him on his mouth plates. Before he could react she hops out of bed again and starts heading downstairs.

“Archangel! Breakfast!” She calls out and Garrus sat there with a look of shock. His heart was racing again.

_‘Fuck…’_

*********************

Luna and Garrus were walking to the restaurant his sister recommended to have breakfast at. While on this small journey Luna decided to data-mine.

“I’m looking through everything, but at the moment all I have is Garm. He hasn’t been on Omega for a while now after the ‘death’ of you. My contacts heard he’s not even a leader anymore. He probably got a better deal somewhere else.” 

He nods, “Better deal somewhere else?” Garrus asked and Luna thought for a moment before answering.

“Yes, I’m thinking Tuchanka. There are some clans there that might take him in. The question is who?”

“Alright, that’s a plan. After the ship is upgraded we head to Tuchanka.” He said with what seems annoyance. Luna looked at him and wonders if he was alright.

“You seem pretty short today? Are you okay?”

“Pretty sure you’re the short one here.” She sticks her tongue out at him.

“I mean you seem off! Nervous about seeing your sister?” She asks.

_‘Among other things.’_ He thought. 

He sighs and nods, “I haven’t seen her face to face in over a year. Being a Spectre is time-consuming, and I just feel like she hates me. I know that she doesn’t, but sometimes I feel like she does.” He said while looking down. 

She touches his arms to comfort him, “I get it. Doing the work I do makes me stay away from Navi for months. I can tell she gets really sad about it, and since I have my mother with me it’s even worst. I keep telling mom Navi is old enough, but she scared. To her, if something was to happen at least Navi is ‘safe’. I know ‘safe’ on Omega seems odd, but the good doctor is very reliable and remarkable at staying alive. It’s why my mother trusts him with Navi’s life.” 

He looked forward in thought thinking back to his days as Archangel. 

“When I became Archangel I left my old life behind…I left my sister behind, and never looked back. Although I sent every single penny for my mother it just wasn’t enough. It took a while to finally get my sister to look at me with a smile; and a part of me feels like it’s only a matter of time before she’s disappointed in me again.” His eyes started to have a faraway look as if living in the past.

She places her hand on his back smiling at him getting him out of his dark thoughts, “Stop that Garrus. She’s your sister, and believe it or not as long as you don’t disappear on her again; she’s going to love the shit outta you. I know there is a voice that tells you that’s not true, but don’t listen to it okay?” 

He looks at her and stops for a moment. This made Luna stop as well and look at him oddly. When he places his head on hers she smiles in understanding.

“Thank you.” He whispers not caring if people were looking.

_‘I can’t have you, but I could at least enjoy these moments’_

When they arrived at the restaurant Solana waved to them. Luna noticed her markings and hide.

“Wow, she's like a shorter female version of you!”

“You should see our father.” They both laughed and sat in the seats beside Solana.

“Hi, nice to finally meet you! I’m Solana Vakarian.” Solana greeted 

“Hi, nice to meet you as well. My name is Lunaria Shepard, but you can call me Luna or Shepard.” Luna smiles warmly at Solana.

“And I am Garrus, Garrus Vakarian codename Archangel. Turian ba-” 

Solana rolled her eyes and cuts him off, “ Seriously Garrus you are embarrassing us!" She said and they laughed, "I hope you don’t mind that I didn’t order any food. I don’t know what Humans eat for breakfast.”

Luna smiles, “That’s okay I can order for myself.” Once they place their order Solana looked towards them.

“So how long are you guys staying here on the Citadel?”

“Two more days. I need to see how the upgrades are going for the gun.” Solana rolls her eyes looking at her brother talking about guns.

“Let me guess you need to Calibrate?” She said placing her hands on her hips. 

Luna burst out laughing, “Oh yes! If I don’t get him out of the battery of the ship he would go days without food or water just to calibrate!” She said as Solana giggles.

“I feel very attacked right now,” Garrus says while chuckling. 

“You know I was kind of nervous meeting your wife Garrus, but I really like her.” That made their laughing stop. Solana notices and looked at the two weirdly.

“Did I get the term wrong?” She asks in fear of insulting his wife.

Luna bites her lips, “No, you didn’t. Just things are kind of weird at the moment.” She said trying to formulate what she wants to say.

“Shepard and I are not…we don’t see each other as husband and wife.”Garrus cuts in.

“So why have the bondmarks? I mean you can get it removed you know.” Solana tilts her head slightly trying to understand. Garrus was the first to speak.

“It’s just complicated. We don’t expect people to understand. Think we can leave it at that?” He pleads. Solana looked back and forth between the two and shrugs.

“I understand. Let’s just get back to enjoying the breakfast.” She smiles and they went back to small talk.

“Lulu!” Luna turns her head over to see Navi waving at her with their mother talking to the waiter. Luna broke out in a smile. Seeing Garrus younger sister made her want to be with Navi and she was glad to see her.

“Hey Navi, what are you guys doing here?” Luna asks.

Laena rolls her eyes but smiles as she explains, “Navi wanted to taste the food here. Said it rivals mine, which is just wrong on so many accounts.” 

Luna giggles, “Mom are you jealous?” Laena huffs at the idea.

“You can sit here with us if you would like,” Solana calls out. Seeing the young Turian made her curious about the family dynamic. 

“Are you sure I wouldn’t want to impose.” Laena said calmly.

Solana shook her head, “No, it’s fine really.”

“Come on mommy we can't be rude and refuse!” This gave Solana a small shock, but she made sure not to express it. Laena stuck her hand out to Solana greeting her.

“I am Dr. Laena Shepard and this is my youngest daughter Naviana Shepard.” Solana smiles and shook her hand.

“Navi for short! And yes I know I'm short!” Navi pouts but grins after as her mandibles twitch in happiness when meeting someone new.

“Solana Vakarian it’s a pleasure to meet you both.”

Once they sat down and the waiter took their order, Laena smiles at Solana.

“Odd isn’t it?” Solana snaps out of her daze and looks at the older woman.

“Hmm?” She wanted to slap herself for not coming up with any words.

“Seeing a Human with a Turian for a daughter. Trust me many people of all species look at us weirdly. The Citadel does not disappoint.” She says matter-of-factly. 

Garrus raise his brow plate, “People are giving you trouble?” He asks.

“Oh, no…just odd looks here and there.”

“It’s so rude. We heard this human couple call us gross.” Navi said while rolling her eyes and crossing her arms.

Luna clutches her hand, “What?” She asks angrily.

Laena places her hand on hers, “Don’t get upset. People can believe what they want to believe. It’s how you react that matters.” She said calmly. This made Luna take a breath and smile. “It’s why I gave them my look and had them running with their tails behind their backs.” The three laugh while the Vakarians looked in question.

“So Humans have tails?” Garrus asks, the trio paused looked at each other and laughs again. He shrugs. 

“No Garrus it’s just a saying.” Luna replied touching his arm. As they start to learn more about each other; Navi starts giggling quietly to herself for a moment and Solana smiled at her.

“What's so funny?” Navi snaps back to the older female Turian embarrassed and starts to look around not trying to make eye contact.

“It's nothing! Nothing at all!” Navi almost shouts while flailing her arms.

Laena looks at her daughter oddly, “Navi, what happened?” Laena asks. 

Luna saw a glint in Navi's eyes and became very curious. Solana starts to giggle at the teen failing to hide her secret. Garrus ordered something to drink still thinking about Humans and tails.

“I…look! Don’t panic! An Alliance soldier made fun of my height, and we kind of got into a friendly spat. I was just thinking about it.” She giggles again and Laena rolls her eyes. Solana was curious about her age believing it was thirteen.

“May I ask, how old are you?” 

Navi chuckles, “I feel like a broken record, but, I am sixteen and before you ask, I was born I with a weird genetic disorder that forces me at this height. No amount of science could get me back to where I need to be as a female Turian. This forces people to look down on me and not just figuratively. The funny thing is? I don't think he was looking down on me, which was a new perspective from a random person, and it was nice.” Luna giggles and pokes her mandibles teasing her. Navi shoos her hand away from her face and glares at Luna.

“Where was I when this happened Navi?” Laena asks.

“You were asleep. I had a lot of energy and wanted to walk around the station. This is my first time off Omega…so I was curious and wanted to explore. While I was walking I bumped into him and he started to laugh at me while helping me up. What a jerk, right!? I called him a meathead after he called me tiny!” She said loudly in glee.

“Meathead Navi? Really?” Luna snorts. 

Navi laughs holding her sides, “He said 'I could throw you!' and I said 'at least I could fly!'” 

Luna laughed at the silliness, "At least I could fly? That's the best my little sister got!?" Navi shrugs as her mandibles shake in happiness.

“Who is this Alliance soldier?” Garrus asked now chuckling.

“Um...I think his name was James…Vega? A really big guy…like built like a mako big. The guy is really big in the muscle department, okay!” 

Luna grins, “Oh really? Sounds like someone has a crush!” Luna teases.

Navi’s eyes went wide, “No! He just was…very nice to look at. Besides being a meathead of course.” Luna pokes her mandibles again.

“Yup, definitely a crush.” Navi groans in annoyance and everyone laughs.

When the food arrives they ate and spoke to each other.

“What brings you here to the Citadel Solana?” Laena asks. 

Solana swallows her food and looks with a smile, “I am here to be a doctor. Well, learning to be, at the moment I am an intern.” She said.

“Becoming a doctor is going to take a lot of time and late nights. So many sleepless nights Karin and I went through to during our time. Karin’s the medical doctor, by the way, I am a geneticist. I hope you are ready for it.”

“Oh, I am very much! Uh…Dr. Shepard. May I ask have you ever read a book called _‘The Turian Body: Through a Human eye’_? 

Laena smiles, “I have, after all, I did write it.” She said.

Solana looked at her shocked, “You…you did? I am a fan! Everything in that book has taught me so much!” 

“Really? I would think Turians would have better understand than I.”

“Well yes, but you can learn a lot when you see it from a different perspective. What made you want to study Turians? How did you manage to do something so detailed? Why did you write this book?” Solana was shooting off questions left and right. Luna looked at her mother worried but saw a small, yet nervous, smile.

“Well, I did it to support my daughters. I have the knowledge so why not. The credits were enough for many years. As for the other questions it was just part of my old job nothing more. Studying other lifeforms was very important during my younger days.” Solana wanted to ask more, but the look on the doctor's face gave her a pause.

“I’m sorry for getting really excited about this. It’s just…my mother is very sick, and I’ve been trying to figure out a way to help against her disease.”

“Sol,” Garrus calls out his eyes darkening as he clutches his mouth.

She ignores him, “My mother has Corpalis Syndrome, and I’ve been trying to help find a cure-”

“Solana! I am sure the Shepard’s don’t want to know about our family issues.” He said cutting her off.

Solana glares at Garrus, “At least someone is trying to do something in this family!” She stands up from her chair

“You think I haven’t done anything?!” Garrus stands up as well and Luna tries to calm him down.

“No! All you ever have done is throw money at the problem! That’s not how it works Garrus!”

“Are-”

“Enough! Would you two calm down? Do you want the entire Citadel to know of the problem?” Laena calls out to them. This made them stop and sit back down.

“Are you okay?” Luna whispers to Garrus.

He sighs, “Yeah, sorry about that.”

“I understand Corpalis Syndrome has been a problem for Turians for a long time Solana. I…have studied some with this problem and even I don’t fully understand it. There have been breakthroughs, but they don’t really last. All I could do is give this information to my good friend Dr.Solus. He has contacts that can help with your mother’s situation.” Laena said honestly.

Solana gave her a look of hope, “Th…thank you so much.” She stutters. 

Laena shook her head and frowns, “Don’t thank me. This isn’t a cure Solana I want you to understand this.” 

“It’s better than nothing Dr.Shepard.” Solana said nodding determinedly.

Things were still tense around the table and Navi thought for a bit how to break it.

“Can I have dessert? I know it's breakfast, but it's a restaurant!” They all looked at the quiet voice and saw Navi playing with her fingers.

“Of course you can my little Turian,” Laena said kissing her on the fringe.

“Mom! Come on I’m not a baby!” Navi groans pushing her away and everyone laughed. From the corner of her eyes, Luna saw Navi smile.

_‘Thank you, Navi.’_

After breakfast Solana went back to the hospital she is working at leaving the four outside the restaurant. 

“Mom once the weapons are installed we will be heading to Tuchanka,” Luna said as they walk the presidium. Navi was looking for any shop that sells robots while Garrus was typing into his Omni-tool.

“Tuchanka huh? I haven’t seen Wrex in a while.” Laena’s eyes seem to glint in excitement.

“Yes, Melon has connections to Garm, a Krogan who used to be a leader of the Blood Packs on Omega, and right now what we know is he got a better deal somewhere else. Best bet is Tuchanka, and I am hoping Wrex has a good idea.”

“Connection how?”

“Honestly? I don’t know. We still don’t know if he was taken or working voluntarily” Laena glares ahead and Garrus stop typing in his Omni-tool to listen to the conversation.

“Voluntarily…why would Melon…excuse me Maelon. Why would Maelon voluntarily go to the Krogans with Genophage data? No. He must have been taken by Garm.”

Luna shrugs, “I mean…I don’t think we should dismiss the idea that-”

“And I understand. It just seems so…wrong?” Laena said cutting her off.

“Come on mom you always taught me ‘Always expect the unexpected’” Luna said annoyed she was cut off.

Laena bit her lips before nodding, “You are right, I should practice what I preach. Just hope that isn’t the case; if so Mordin will not be happy about this." She said in deep thought. After a moment she turns to the group. "Well, it’s time for me to go I need to tell him what is going on. Navi, will you be coming with me? Or would you rather tour the station?”

“I think I rather tour the station mom." Navi said happily, "Maybe I'll see him again.” She whispers under her breath and with that, she walked away finally finding a robotics store. Laena smiles before quickly walking away to find Mordin.

“So time for more information grinding?” Garrus asks. 

Luna thought for a moment, “Yeah” She said.

“Need to stop for some groceries though.” 

Luna nods then playfully looks at him, “Do you think our toys made it back to your apartment?” Garrus coughs from the sudden question and was going to answer when her Omni-tool chimed.

“Hello?”

“Shepard, finally I got into contact you. I need your help.” Luna glares at the screen.

“Zaeed what did you do?” He laughs.

“Well, I got the information you wanted from fist…and more.” She groans.

**********************

“Thanks for helping me with this Garrus. I owe you big time.” She said rolling her eyes at the situation.

He chuckles, “I have a way you could owe me.” His mandibles twitch as he looks at her and slaps her ass.

Entering C-Sec office they saw a female Turian typing away. Garrus narrows his eyes and notices it as Kaira.

“Hey Kai, how are you?” Luna bit her lips when seeing this beautiful Turian in front of her.

_‘No, I am not jealous.’_

“Garrus! Hey!” She got up and hugs him before spotting Luna. “Hi, and who might you be?”

“Uh…Lunaria Shepard.” Luna said nervously. 

Kaira’s eyes went wide, “You’re the woman who Garrus been chasing around the galaxy! The one who got away as Lamont loves to sing about!” She shouts. 

Luna chuckles rubbing her neck bashfully, “Ye...yeah. That’s me.” 

Garrus rolls his eyes, “Shepard this is Kaira Hiklo. She’s been in C-Sec for years now with her boyfriend who is a detective.” Luna gave a sigh of relief hearing boyfriend.

_‘Luna no!’_

She didn’t notice they were having a conversation until she heard Kaira talk about a bondmark.

“How’s the hunt for the bond-mate? Last time we met you were pretty upset. Now you seem happy.”

“Really?”

“Yeah like you found her. Where is she?” Luna shifts a little on her feet nervously and Kaira could feel the tone in the air. Luna gasp when Kaira started to sniff the air Garrus quickly intervenes.

“You know it doesn’t really matter.” Kaira didn’t say anything but her eyes were on Luna and she slowly narrows them on her. 

“You smell different.” Luna tenses up and Garrus starts to lowly growl.

“Kaira, don’t.” He was ready to protect Luna even from his friends.

She looks a bit shock, “Garrus, is this her? Are you his bondmate?! Spirits! The Universe works in mysterious ways! The woman you have been chasing all over the galaxy has been your bond-mate this entire time!” She practically screams. Luna coughs and Garrus' facepalms his face.

“Could you be even louder?”

“This is so romantic! Stanger’s meet marking each other in the heat of passion, and years down the line chases each other to eventually find out they have marked each other. Fleet and Flotilla be damned!” Luna cringes in embarrassment and wanted to run and hide in a dark hole.

“Please Kaira. It’s not like that.” Garrus said rolling his eyes at the absurdity even if it is true.

She stops and looks at him questionably.“No? How so?”

“Well…um…” He was about to say something when Luna steps in.

“This isn’t some romantic movie. Things are very complicated when it comes to these marks. Plus I never chased I always ran away before I was caught.”

“I caught you multiple times, I just let you go.” Garrus pointed out and she rolls her eyes.

“If it’s so complicated why not surgically take them away?” 

Luna bites her lip, “I can’t. I am terrified of surgeries, and It’s…important to me, it’s something I don’t want to let go of at least not yet.” 

Kaira’s eyes glowed, “Garrus said the same thing!" She squeals then gasps, "The plot thickens!” Luna winces and Garrus groans.

"Kaira no 'plot thickens' stop."

"I am going to write a book about this called," She pauses to think then becomes excited again, " _'Marked'_ , what you think?" She was practically jumping at this point and the other officers were giving them weird looks.

"I think you need to stop," Garrus said eyes wide.

"Hey come on Romance sells!" She gasps, "Spirits! Sex Sells! Need to figure out ways a Human and Turian can have sex." She turns to Luna, "Can Human females receive a penis?" She said the words came out oddly, but the translator was able to pick it up. Luna was too busy looking in horror at the female Turian, she couldn't even speak.

"Kaira!" Garrus said loudly trying not to scream.

"Needs a plot, of course, can't have porn without plot...or can I? Wait...tragedy!? Hurt and Comfort...leads to Romance! Kaira you are a damn genius!" She starts to type quickly away in her Omni-tool

Luna felt naked by this point as if her life was on display, “Look we’re looking for someone okay! Name is Zaeed Massani.” She screams. Kaira stops brainstorming and looks at the Human. 

Embarrassed, she coughs and went back to her desk typing away, “Found him. Was caught in a gunfight and is now being charged. Although it has come to light that the people who he was in a firefight with caused a lot of problems. I say talk to the captain and you can get things settled.” She said trying to contain her happiness. 

Garrus rolls his eyes, “Where and when can we meet him?” He asks. 

She makes a call and nods, “He’s waiting in the office to see you two now.” Pointing to the side of her.

“Thanks,” Luna whispers now trying to run.

Kaira couldn't hold her happiness anymore, “No thank you! To see Garrus this happy makes me happy.” She said as they left to see the captain. 

“I’m sorry about that…” Garrus said a very annoyed. 

Luna touches his arm and smiles at him, “It’s ok. She’s just happy to see you happy. Although the book part made me feel extremely vulnerable." She said laughing nervously, "You must have been pretty upset to make her have to react like this.” She looks ahead of them.

_‘You have no idea’_

When they got to captain Baily's room he was already informed of the matter as Zaeed sat there in cuffs.

“And done.”

“Thanks, Baily, was kind of you to do this for us,” Garrus said and Baily shrugs.

“Well if a Spectre has business with him I don’t have the authority to hold him. Plus, he protected that Qurian the least we could do is not make a fuss about it.” Luna rolls her eyes staring at Zaeed who was not too happy about having to spend time here. 

Leaving C-Sec office they made their way to the Presidium Commons. Garrus went to buy some groceries while Luna talked to Zaeed. At the moment she was glaring at him and he rolls his eyes with arms crossed on his chest.

“What? I did the goddamn job. You owe me.” Giving her the information from his Omni-tool. She starts to read over the data and nods grumbling under her breath.

“That’s fine. I’ll make sure to give you the credits.” 

Zaeed shook his head, “No, I need more than that. Shepard, you told me you would help me get Vido. If you look in that data shit you would know where he is now.” He said crossing his arms.

She rolls her eyes, "I mean you found the data and location about him. Couldn't you do this by yourself?" She said looking annoyed.

"No." He said not trying to sound angry by her unwillingness to help me.

"What? Zaeed you're a damn bounty hunter! You do things by yourself all the time! What difference does it make if I am there?" She questions looking at him. He didn't say anything while stubbornly not looking at her. Zaeed didn't know why he needs her help just know he wants it.

"Just need your help is all." He said reluctantly.

Luna stares at the grumpy old man before putting two and two together and gasping happily, "You want my help because you trust me and you don't want to be alone anymore." She teases.

Zaeed glares at her, "I need your help not want it!" He grumbles.

"Just admit you enjoy being around me and want to work with me." She said dancing a little.

"I'm not admitting shit! Are you going to help me or not!?" He was getting defensive and Luna saw. Not pushing anymore she sighs and crosses her arms.

“Zaeed I know you want to get him, but right now there is something important I need to do.”

“That piece of shit needs to pay for what he did Shepard, and I need your goddamn help!” He growls pissed.

She chuckles, “Fine, you want help? I will help you, but after I investigate something. Can you wait?” 

He closes his eyes and nods, “I can wait, but after this investigating shit you better hold your end of the deal.” 

Luna rolls her eyes, “Yeah sure whatever. Now, do you want to join me officially? Or just wait for me to do my mission?" She said her mouth threatening to break out in a smile as the old man fought against his feelings of wanting companionship after years of being alone.

"I'm not joining officially, but I would join you on this mission of yours. Maybe I could shoot some goddamn assholes." He finally said a very small smile on his face.

Luna grins, "Zaeed something's changed about you. I don't know what it is, but...you've changed." She said in a singsong tone teasing him.

He rolls his eyes, "The only thing that changed is my tolerance for you. For some reason, I haven't shot you yet." He grumbles as his smile gets a little bigger, and Luna saw.

_Actions speak louder than words Zaeed_

She burst out laughing, "I'll contact you when we leave from here. We’re staying here for one more day as my ship gets upgraded.” He nods and walks away, but stops.

“By the way, Shepard, the Qurian I saved is staying at a clinic. She has some information that is important to the Shadow Broker. Wanted to ask her for it, but she was shot and I had to rush her to the clinic.” Luna nods in understanding.

“Alright contact me if anything changes, and Zaeed, please don’t cause any more trouble? Garrus is putting his ass on the line for you right now.” Zaeed grunted before leaving.

Garrus walks over with the groceries and touches her back.

“Ready to go back to the apartment?” She groans and nods.

***********************

Luna groans staring at the screen before closing her eyes and placing her head on the desk. Her hair was in a ponytail and she was sitting on Garrus lap who has his eyes closed tightly trying to get rid of his headache.

“I hate this so much. Looking at all this information is giving me a migraine.”

“I thought information is your job.” He said rubbing his fringe now.

She glares at the wall, “Looking at information is the Shadow Broker job. I am an agent! I find the damn information!” She groans at her own yelling. He wraps his arms around her waist which makes her bite her lips.

_‘No Luna his arms aren’t what you want.’_

_‘Then why are you still sitting on his lap?’_

“You sound really frustrated. Maybe we can have a bit of fun? Heard it helps a lot with headaches.” He whispers in her ear seductively. She shivers and when his hand slipped between her thighs she opens her legs to let him inside.

“Garrus…” She moans desperately.

“Is that a yes?” She nods and he chuckles, "I didn't hear you." 

“Yes…” His hand rubs her clit and she jumps at the electricity. 

“Open wider” He commanded and she leans back onto his chest and brings her feet onto the desk opening her legs wide. Garrus' other hand slips into her shirt and played with her breast while pushing a finger into her entrance. Her head leans back as she grips the chair. The wet noises from his fingering made were turning him on and he felt himself slip from his plates.

“Oh...oh Garrus.” She was tightening around his finger so he pulls out of her which makes her whimper. “Please, Sir I’ll be good.” She begs using the name he enjoys hoping he would give her what she wants and he smirks.

“Bend over.” He commands and she did what he says grabbing the desk breathing heavily. When she felt him slap her ass she moans loudly and shakes.

“Sir!” He chuckles.

“I’m not sorry. Have you seen your ass? Spirits it’s so soft and big.” He slaps again and her knees go weak. Slapping her again made her clutch her hands in a fist.

“Please…” She moans and he stops slapping her ass but instead rubs slowly.

“Please what?” He whispers in her ear. 

“Please…fuck me, Sir.” She begged, and he didn’t wait as he pushes deep inside of her. They both moan at the sensation. Garrus was buried deep inside of her and she was loving it. She can feel herself stretch to his size and would squeeze him with her walls just the way he loves it.

“Spirits” He groans grabbing and squeezing her waist using his talon lightly which makes her moan at the pain.

“More…squeeze more with your…t…talons please.” She begs and he runs his talons over her sides leaving light marks and causing her to bleed a little. When he starts to slap her ass multiple times with one hand and grabbing her waist with the other she moans louder. 

“Fuck….yes,” She cried out at the pain. Bending down he starts nipping at her shoulder while reaching under her and starts to rub her clit.

“You have a visitor Spectre Vakarian.” His apartment VI said.

Garrus ignores it and continues to pounding harder into Luna whose legs were shaking.

“Do…don’t stop please.” He groans when he feels her squeeze him again with her walls.

“You have visitors Spectre Vakarian.”

“Spirits! Tell them I am not home!” He shouts while slamming deeper into Luna. Luna’s Omni-tool blinked and she groans looking at it. Seeing who it’s from she gasps and quickly tenses up. 

“Garrus stop! It’s Navi!” He growls in annoyance and pulls out frustrated at not being able to finish. Fixing her hair and taking deep breath Luna answers.

“Hey, Nav!” Navi waves.

 _“Hi, Luna! Mommy and I are outside Garrus’ apartment. Are you there?”_ Their eye grew wide in fear.

“Wh…what?!” She hangs up and starts to panic slipping her underwear back on.

“Our scent is all over each other!” Garrus panics trying to clean up and force his cock back behind his plates.

“Its fine were working together right. So it would make sense our scent will be on each other! How the hell did they find out about this place?!” They were running around getting things in order.

“Spectre Vakarian you have visitors.” Garrus rushes to the door and opens it his mandibles flaring as he greets Laena and Navi.

“Oooooo! This place is amazing!” Navi rushes inside spots Archangel and rushes over to him. Laena stops and narrows her eyes at Garrus before sniffing a little. He tenses.

“Where is Luna?” She said as her eyebrow raises.

“Luna? Oh um…she's just using the bathroom. She came over to…um...look through the data for the mission.” Laena kept staring at him and he shifts on his feet.

“Hey, mom!" Luna said walking out the bathroom before turning to Navi, "Navi, make sure not to play too rough with him.” Luna kisses Navi on the head who gave her a weird look for doing that. As she walks over to her mother Navi glares at her from afar while rubbing her nose.

“Ew…you know all that artificial smell messes with my sense of smell Lulu.” Navi complains.

Luna smiles back at the young Turian, “Sorry, kiddo.” Grinning at her mother who by now has her arms cross. “So what brings you here mom?”

“I wanted to talk to Garrus and I had a feeling you would be here. Thought I might cook dinner for us all.” Luna gave her an O face.

“You don’t have to do that Dr.Shepard.” Garrus begins but she raises her hand to stop him from talking.

“It’s alright since this family is clearly getting closer I might as well do something on my part to welcome you to it. They do say my cooking is to die for.” She smiles at him before moving past them into the kitchen. The way she said closer made the two adults tense.

The food that Laena was cooking was making Garrus salivate. Navi was talking to Luna while gently combing Archangel with her hand. With a smile, Luna turns to see Garrus trying not to look hungry as the apartment filled with that delicious smell.

“Hungry?” Garrus looked at Luna and chuckles as his stomach grumbles.

“That and other things.” His eyes were intense and Luna's face grew hot. She smiles innocently tilting her head.

“Oh? What other things?” She flirts and Garrus mandible twitch.

“Just thinking of something wet. Like a shower.” Luna punches him and giggles.

“Navi, come set table baby.” Navi jumps up and heads over to the table. 

Luna watches at Navi leaves the couch and turns to Garrus again, “Sorry for my family invasion this wasn’t supposed to happen.” She apologizes.

He shrugs, “It’s ok really. Well, not the getting interrupted part. That part was pretty annoying.” She burst out laughing. 

“Food’s ready!” Navi calls out and they all sit at the table. Garrus thought about his mother as he ate slowly looking down trying not to show his sadness.

“Everything alright? You’re the first to look sad while eating my food.” Garrus looks up at Laena and chuckles.

“Sorry was thinking of my mother. I miss her cooking.” They were quiet.

_‘Shit…didn’t mean to make it awkward.’_

“I understand. This is part of the reason why I came here. I wanted to tell you that Mordin has sent a message to your father to have permission for her to be taken to Sur’Kesh. Hopefully, everything goes right.” She said smiling sweetly.

“Thank you again Dr.Shepard you didn’t have to yet you did.” Luna touches his arm and smiles at him and his mandible twitches in appreciation. After their meal, Laena coughs getting everyone’s attention. 

“So I wish to tell you something that I hope doesn’t change your opinion about my daughters. As for me, that's up for debate.” Luna looked at her oddly.

“Mom?”

“Have you ever heard of the Turian Butcher?” Garrus was quiet thinking before answering.

“Turian Butcher? It’s an urban legend that is told to children who misbehave. There are a few books that have graphic details of what he would do to Turians.” 

She laughs nervously, “Interesting never thought I would make it into Turian urban legends.” This made Garrus look at her confused.

“What do you mean?” Luna bit her lip scared he would reject her…them after this.

“I am the Turian Butcher. It was during my time as an Alliance scientist in a black ops group specialized in the advancement of humanity, and it’s called Cerberus.”

“Cerberus? I had a few run-ins with that group. Unless it's not the same one.” 

Laena nods, “From what we learned, it is the same group. We also had a few run-ins with them. It seems they have taken their own mantle and broke free of the Alliance. When Cerberus was under the Alliance my job was to study aliens. In particular, Turians. We would kidnap Turians and do experiments on them. See how they work. I…I am ashamed to say that I was one of the leads, and I did enjoy my work. Learning about your species was." She pauses for a second, "fascinating, as a young scientist. But then I became pregnant with Luna.” She looks at Luna with a sad smile hoping she could forgive her. Luna was looking down silently begging Garrus to not hate them.

“And you stopped there?” He asked quietly not knowing what to think or say. He felt very uneasy when she looks back at him full of sorrow.

“No," She said in shame, "I kept doing my research. Until we kidnapped a Turian woman who was also pregnant. I know Turian young are very small in the womb doesn't mean they don't have a 'tell'. This also wasn't the first time I've seen a pregnant Turian. As I cut her open to.." She coughs, "Do my experiments it made me physically sick. I left the next day. This was my first time dealing with one when I to was pregnant and I guess seeing the young made me think of my own child within me, made me empathize. After that, I knew I couldn’t do it anymore. I retired and lived my life on Mindoir with my husband John...until the Batarians hit.” When she was finished she stares at him waiting for his response.

Garrus felt extremely uneasy after learning about Laena's past. He questioned himself if he should do something? Anything? His eyes met her and everything was deathly quiet. In his mind, the voice of vengeance yelled at him. 

_‘Kill her!’_

_‘She killed Turians!’_

_'She’s a Monster!’_

Laena frowns watching his reaction and thought about what to say next.

“Each day I live with these sins. It eats away at me sometimes, but I have ultimately accepted my past for what it is, what I am. It’s why I believe my family and I were taken and tortured by the Batarians. Karma. It is something I believe in. What you do will come back to you, and it did. Garrus I do ask you to not look at my daughters in disgust and hate because of me. They have been through enough. If you must hate me so be it, but not them.” She begs.

“Why…why tell me this?” He said sounding conflicted.

“Because I can see how close you are getting to this family...to Luna. I rather face the music now than later.” Luna looks up with shock at her mother and knows her mother figured them out. Garrus just sat there trying to figure out what to do after learning of this.

“Mommy isn’t a monster!” Navi shouts putting Garrus out of his thoughts. This made Garrus look up to see Navi looking at him.

“What?”

“Mommy isn’t a monster. She has done wrong, yes, but she’s changed. She isn’t who she was before! B..because of her I am alive.” She stutters her mandibles twitch in fear and sadness.

_‘Learn to live in the moment!’_

Kaira. He remembered what she said, to finally live in the moment, and at this moment Laena Shepard has been through enough and has two daughters. A Human and Turian.

“No, I won’t hate you. I don’t see the point in hating you because of your past. I've been told to live in the present and in the present, you have changed. I’m still wary of you, and the piece of trust I gained for you has been shaken, but I don’t hate you. Nor do I hate your daughters.” Laena smiles and grabs his hand tears falling from her eyes.

“That’s all I ask. Thank you.” He was a bit hesitant when she touched his hand, but he relaxes and nods.

Garrus walked out of his bathroom after a moment of trying to process the information of Luna’s mother.

_‘Turian Butcher huh. Spirits…didn’t think it would be real. The thought of someone doing the things described.’_

_'She deserved it!'_

_'She deserves to be tortured for what she did.'_

_'Kill! Her!'_

“Garrus?” He snapped out of it and looked at Laena wide-eyed. A small smile on her face as she calls him over.

“Need something?” He notices she was doing dishes.

“I just wanted to say thank you for the other night. When I felt the vibration of Luna’s powers going haywire I went to investigate. Knowing it was involving you scared me. The last thing I need is my daughter killing a Spectre.”

_“Look at me Garrus…Look at me!”_

“She struggles every day accepting herself and because of that, she represses her powers. I have accepted that we will never be the same again. No amount of science would change us back to normal, and trust me I’ve tried. Even with the help of Mordin, I couldn’t find a way. The best we could do was create a drug that would pause our powers, bringing it under control.”

“Do you have the same problems?” She puts the dishes away to dry.

“No, not anymore. I have found peace in Nirvana and learned to find my balance. I have accepted myself and because of that I no longer feel pain from my powers. It is me and me it. We used to meditate together and practice yoga. Although my training was a lot more disciplined than Luna’s, she was still able to find balance. When she left for the Alliance…everything changed.” She turns around and watches both her daughters sing to the romance musical they were watching.

“Does this have anything to do with her ex-boyfriend?” He questions with a pang of jealousy.

Laena sighs, “I knew she would bring him up to you eventually." She looks at Luna sadly, "After all these years she is still in love with him." She shook her head in disapproval, "Yes, something happened and she lost control. Her boyfriend at the time decided to end it. Ever since then she has lost her balance and now hates herself even more than ever. To hear her call herself freak…hurts.”

_“I feel like a monster, a…freak”_

“Her power bursts are her rejecting it and herself in a time of extreme emotions, such as anger or fear.”

“I didn’t think of it that way…” He whispers remembering that night.

She looks him in the eyes, “You have stopped her from causing harm to others and the ship during that night. I don’t know why or how, but you did it. Luckily that was her power at low strength.” She said nodding.

“There are levels?” He looked surprised and she quietly chuckles.

“Yes, the ones you have seen was just a burst of emotions. On very, and I must emphasize very rear occasions, Luna will ‘break’ so to speak, and only I can bring her back.” Garrus went into deep thought remembering the first time he and Luna partnered up.

_“It’s very rear that I have a mental break down.”_

_“You know only my mother can break me out of that state. The last time I was like that…I…had to wait for my body to exhaust itself. No one could stop me.”_

“I…I’ve seen her like that before. It was the first time we were together trying to get out of a trap. We were on a space station," He pauses to think about what station, "Jarrahe Station, it was taken over by a rogue AI. Something happened and she lost it. I was able to calm her down and she told me what you are telling me now. Small burst of anger, or emotions, and on rear occasions her breaking down.” Now it was Laena’s turn to be surprised.

“What? You…calmed her down?!” This made Luna turn to look at them and from afar listen to what was being said. Garrus coughs looking away from the shocked doctor sheepishly.

“Uh…yes. Again I don’t know why she broke down but she did. I just…held her and told her I won't hurt her.” Tears started forming in Laena’s eyes and Luna looked away trying not to listen anymore, but that didn’t work she could still hear them.

“And you didn’t…run away?" She whips her tears away and smiles at him brightly. "Yes, I see it now. I see why she has grown so attached to you." It was quiet for a split second before Laena spoke again. This time looking Garrus in the eyes seriously, "I want to warn you though, Garrus, that is not her full strength. It’s an extremely high chance this would never happen again, but I still must warn you. This only happened once and it was when we finally escaped the Batarians; she was only twelve at the time. I just hope if there is a time she loses herself to despair again, and I am not there, you can bring her back.” She said; he looks away from her watching Luna and Navi.

Once Laena and Navi left, much to Navi’s disappointment. Luna and Garrus were sitting on the couch watching a comedy show. With her feet tucked in she looks at Garrus for a moment, sighs, and then turns back to the vid. When she did that for the third time Garrus rolls his eyes and looks to her.

“Luna, I don’t hate your mother. I think she’s fine. I am still terrified of her, but you don’t have to be worried, ok.” She looked at him wide-eyed before groaning.

“I’m sorry. It's just weird! I don’t want to be worried, but I can’t blame you if you want to run away from us.” He chuckles.

“Well, I don’t okay? Plus there were plenty of times I ran, just in the opposite direction of away more like towards.” She smiles, throws a pillow at him, which he caught, and went back to watching the show.

“Thanks, you don’t know how much I appreciate you for accepting my mother. Even if you are still wary of her.” He nods and leans back in the couch in a comfortable position watching the show for a moment before looking over to Luna.

“You know I’ve been wondering…”

“Hmm?”

“How did she save Navi?” Luna ignores the vid and looks at Garrus with a sad smile.

“When Navi was in the womb her biological mother was hitting all kinds of drugs really hard. My mother found her passed out on the streets of Omega, and sadly she didn’t last long when she was brought in. My mother, knowing how a pregnant Turian works, was able to take Navi out and keep her in an incubator. With the help of Dr.Chakwas and Dr. Solus, she worked endlessly to keep Navi alive. I remember seeing Navi in her incubator. She was so small and squishy. So you know, now you can stop making fun of me being squishy.” She said sticking her tongue out.

Garrus chuckles, “We might be squishy when we're just born, but we become more harden as time passes.” He said.

“Oh really!?" She asks sarcastically which earned her a devious look from Garrus, she laughs and continues to talk, "anyway, Navi was full of tubes that were keeping her alive and during this time I grew jealous of her because she was taking all of my mother's attention. I was young and it was a year after we escaped the Batarians. So I was still attached to my mother, but the jealously went away and I love Navi so much I couldn’t think of a world without her.” She smiles thinking of the time she was able to hold a very tiny Navi in her arms.

“I know what you mean.” Thinking of Solana. Luna gave a sigh that brought him out of his thoughts.

“My mother loves Navi, but sometimes I can see Navi struggling to understand that.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well at first my mother thought of Navi as more than just a daughter to her. My mother was pregnant when we were taken and she, my unborn sister, died; because of this, my mother saw Navi as the daughter that never got to live. She also saw her as a redemption something she wanted and needed because of her past sins. This affected Navi until my mother finally realized. Their relationship is much better now, but Navi still has her doubts.” 

“How did she get the name Naviana?” 

Luna laughs, “She wanted to honor my father since he wanted to name my unborn sister Navi. Years later, she added the ana part because of the word Nirvana, which is part of my mother's spirituality; she thought it was pretty and so you get Naviana." She smiles before clapping her hands in exciting remembering a memory of her father, "Oh! By the way, my father wanted the name Navi because he loved his job as Alliance Navy; get it? Silly? I know and my mother was a bit horrified by it so she danced for my father to get it changed from y to I; so instead of Navy it's Navi.”

“Danced?” Garrus asked confused. Luna saw his expression and broke down laughing.

“No! Not like that! More like this.” As she dances Garrus burst out laughing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, Kaira in this chapter, or just in general, is that positive inner me I've been trying to be like for years now and I couldn't help myself!


	12. Letting Go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There comes a day when everyone needs to let go of that pain in their past.

Luna was watching fleet and flotilla, she became curious about the film after meeting Kaira the day before. Garrus was sitting beside her, but instead of watching he was reading information about Maelon on his Omni-tool. Luna gasps as a scene passes and sniffs. This causes Garrus to look from his Omni-tool to see Luna hugging the pillow hiding her tears.

“Are…are you crying?” He said trying to contain his laughter.

She turns to him eyes wide, “No of course not!” She gasps, he chuckles and she chucks the pillow at him. After a moment of him laughing she asks him a question.

“Did you find anything else?”

“Clan Weyrloc.” He simply said. 

Her eyebrows raise, “Oh? I heard of them. They are a pretty big clan at odds with Clan Urdnot, which my friend Wrex is Chief of.”

“It also makes sense that Garm is with them seeing how they have a connection to the Blood pack.” He growls.

“Hey, you okay?” She touches his arm giving him a look of concern.

“Just…old wounds that won’t go away.” She holds his hands and gave a sad smile.

“Tell me about it.” Before he could talk about what’s on his mind his apartment VI spoke.

“Spectre Vakarian your package has arrived.” They both looked confused.

“Uh…bring it in.” As the delivery robot enters the home. It places a box down labeled XXX.

Luna laughs, “Oh my God! The store! I forgot we went there before. Let’s see what you got.” Garrus didn’t say anything and got worried. Her past still made him feel bad for buying the items he did. He was taken out of his thoughts by her giggling. She was on the floor on her knees looking through the box before taking out her toy that she picked out.

“Look my Turian dildo came!” He stared at the object and when she clicks the vibration he laughs.

“You know it’s impossible to move the real thing like that.” Luna giggles.

“Oh, I know!” Placing it down she starts to look at the other objects in the box. Garrus tenses up when she took out a breathable ball gag. She starts to examine it with a look of curiosity before putting it in her mouth and locking the lock behind her head. With a devious look, she stares at Garrus and starts to crawl over to him.

“Shepard…” He whispers and she giggles stopping at his legs before taking it off.

“What you think?” 

“Uh…you like it?” She gave him a look of confusion.

“I mean yes it was weird at first, but trying it wasn’t so bad. Don’t you would like it?” He scratches the back of his neck in shame.

“Yeah of course! It’s just, I’m still not sure because of what happened to you. I don’t want to trigger anything.” He starts to remember the conversation he had with Laena. 

Luna frowns and sighs, “Come on Garrus, really? We had sex how many times now? You weren’t scared to show how dominating you were then. Please don’t make my past change how you treat me sexually or otherwise. I want to try this; I want you to be yourself with me.” He hesitates not saying anything, and she turns around crawling back over to the box. She takes out what appears to be a full-body bondage harness with two cuffs attached to the side and he coughs.

“That’s um…electric restraints…uh…for Humans of course. The electric part is used for stimulation for the wearer. It's one size fits all.” She tilts her head while examining the restraints. Noticing the low, medium, and high settings.

“How does the electric part happen?”

“Voice command.” She blinks and nods in understanding.

“You really want to tie me up.” He groans and looks to the side.

“It’s what I am into, but I don’t want to make things weird.” She laughs putting the harness back and searching for more items.

“That’s okay I am really curious now, but I would rather take it slow. Oh, what’s this?” She takes out a black with blue strips collar.

“That is something you can throw away.” He grabs it from her hand and chucks it over his shoulder. She stares at him for a moment and bit her lips before smiling.

“Hey, I was looking at that.” She gets up and finds the collar picking it up. Garrus groans and looks down in shame once again.

“Come on Shepard just forget it. I bought these things unconsciously.” He heard a click and looked up to see her looking at herself in the mirror.

“How does it look? It does cover the nasty scar I got when I was younger.” He stares at her and his plates shift.

“It looks good, but I-”

“Ground rules. You will not call me ‘slave’, and I will not call you ‘master’. Those words are hard to swallow and will turn me off quickly.”

“What would you like me to call you?” She giggles turning around to him.

“My name,” She replied seductively a smirk on her lips.

"Luna?"

"Yes Sir." Garrus nods swallowing

"Would you just want me to call you that in general?"

"Up to you if you want. I just really like hearing you say my name when we're having sex. I've heard many Turians in my life, but your voice is...something else." She said with a glow in her eyes.

Garrus coughs, "Luna it is then." He said as deep and seductive as possible. When Luna shivers looking at him, he chuckles. 

“Hurt not harm. I told you before I like pain, but not being abused please remember that.” She spoke.

“If that’s the case I need you to always communicate openly and honestly with me when it comes to ‘playing’ around. I’ve had a problem with someone before and it was…not fun to deal with after.” He spoke up and she nodded.

“This is not a declaration of being in a relationship. This is strictly for pleasure and pain.” She winks at the word pain but Garrus was still feeling unsure.

He sat there with his hands on his knees picturing Luna in all kinds of positions but was still worried. He didn’t notice when she was in front of him smiling until she straddles him. Blinking away the thoughts he looks at her still not fully convinced she would be interested.

“Are you sure?” She grabs his hand and brings it to her throat beckoning him to squeeze. When he does she moans while grinding herself on him looking him in the eyes. She could feel him through her underwear and his clothes.

“I want this.” His eyes filled with desire as he got closer to her. She starts to breathe heavily feeling herself get wet from his intense stare.

“Will you listen, Luna” He growls hungrily in her ears and she shivers grabbing his shoulders tightly. 

“Sometimes.” He grips her waist tightly as she gave him a challenging stare a smile on her face.

“Sometimes?”

“Yes Sir.” She suddenly feels one of his hands pull her hair making her head lean to the right as he licks and lightly bites at her neck. She moans as his cock begs to enter her, but her underwear and his clothes were barriers. 

“Do you need to be punished?” Her hand reaches behind his fringe touching it in the way he likes it.

“M…maybe” She whimpers, and before he could use his talons on her. A sound from his Omni-tool interrupts them.

“Fuck…these interruptions are not doing me any good.” He checks to see what it was and sighs. “It’s the Normandy, she’s ready to go.” He said feeling pain from not having a release.

Luna claps her hand together, “Great! I can inform the others.” Getting off his lap she starts to send messages out to the crew. His eyes were on her though watching her body move, it was hypnotizing. 

“We need a safety word. Just in case I go too far.” She smiles and places a finger on her chin.

“Lupe.” 

“Lupe? The fruit?” This made his mind stop processing for a moment.

“Of course, it worked so well you stop thinking.” She grins with her hands on her waist.

“Ha-ha good one.” He laughs.

After some time they put on some clothes and in Garrus case his armor. When they were about to leave he gave a frustrated groan and Luna looks at him seeing Archangel laying behind his neck.

“Is it Archangel?” He looked at her confused before sighing.

“No, he’s fine if anything he keeps my neck warm and I like the heat. I just feel pent up, actually starting to feel pain, yesterday and today we’ve been interrupted. I was looking forward to ‘playing’ with you.” Luna’s mouth was agape as they walked out of his apartment building; then giggles.

“We can always ‘play’ on my ship. I do have my own quarters you know.” She said smiling.

He nods remembering how her ship worked, “Okay, that works. If anything I could just handle it myself. Like I did last night. Although, it hasn't helped much.” He groans.

She punches his arm, “You don’t have to. I am willing to please you big guy.” she said lightly brushing she mandibles and he chuckles.

“Remember we need to meet with Zaeed to talk to the Qurian who has information for us.” She nods looking forward.

“Let’s do that and then go to the ship. We’ll leave then. Hopefully, she won’t be too reluctant to give us the info we need.”

Meeting Zaeed at the clinic, where the Qurian was, didn’t take long to get there. Zaeed was leaning against the wall bored. When he sees them and tilts his head to the door.

“She’s in there.” 

Luna walks inside and was greeted with a redhead woman who was talking to a female Qurian.

“Alright, Tali hopefully this would be our last time meeting each other.” She spoke with a different accent that Luna wasn’t accustomed to. Garrus knew that voice and his mandibles moved in familiarity. 

“Hello, Dr. Michel. Nice to see you are doing well.” The woman, Dr. Michel, turns around and with a surprised look, she smiles brightly at Garrus.

“Oh, Garrus! It’s so good to see you! I’ve miss…I mean it’s been a while. How have you been?” Luna narrows her eyes noting the ‘miss’ part.

“I’ve been pretty well, but sorry, not here to catch up. We are here to talk to the Qurian.” This made the Qurian tense up in fear and she starts to nervously play with her hands.

“Please, I just want to go home.” Zaeed came into view and she instantly calms down.

“Relax we’re not here to cause you any more goddamn problems. Shepard here wants the information you told me about.” Luna nods and smiles sweetly at the Qurian.

“Zaeed is right. I am willing to pay top dollar for that information. My employer would be very grateful if you would give it to me.” The Qurian remained silent.

“This information is very important and needs to be giving to the Council.” Garrus notice the annoyance in Luna, but she smiles at the Qurian.

“Hey look, Tali, right? Tali I work for the Shadow Broker and that information is very valuable to him. Now that you know this you know I could pay you greatly for this information.”

“It’s Tali’Zorah nar Rayya and the last person who said they worked for the Shadow Broker lied and set me up. They wanted to get me killed!” Luna kept smiling, she could tell this was a young Qurian, and if they are young.

“Are you on your pilgrimage?” Tali looked at her wearily. 

“Yes…”

“If so I have a male Qurian who is also on his pilgrimage. Would you like to meet him? He could tell you how I run things. Once that is over you can give me the information and I could take you home. How’s that sound?” Luna said sweetly.

Tali sighs and looks down, “That sounds better than being here on the Citadel…so much hate towards Qurians. Even when I tell them it’s important they won’t listen.” Garrus knew who she means. C-Sec or even the Council.

“And I will. Trust me Tali all I want is to help you.” Luna was begging Tali with her eyes now.

Tali nods and gets off the bed, “May I meet this Qurian? Before I give you the information.” Luna wanted to throw her but kept smiling.

“Of course! Let’s go shall we?” Pleased with the outcome they left the clinic. Before they started their journey towards the Normandy, Dr. Michel touches Garrus' arm.

“May I talk to you in private?” Luna glares at her and Garrus nod walking into the clinic with the door closing behind him.

Garrus was standing still as she bit her lips. 

“Can this be quick? The mission I am on is important.”

“Oh! Right sorry…um…is she with you? The red-eye woman?”

“Shepard? Hmm…we’re not together if that’s what you are asking.” She breathes a sigh of relief.

“Well, if that’s the case may I give you a gift? I saved up to give them to you whenever you've came back.” She goes to her desk bends enough that it was noticeable to Garrus she was trying to gain his attention.

He sighs, “That’s nice of you, doctor, but it’s not necessary.” 

“Nonsense I wish to give this to you.” He looks at the box and from the smell knew it was chocolates.

“Turian Chocolates?” She smiles and nods.

“Yes for you.” Garrus takes them into his hand and nods to her.

“Thank you, but I really need to go if you don’t mind.” She smiles sadly at him.

“Of course, please come by once you’re back on the Citadel. Would love to see you again.” 

He leaves the office to see Luna staring at him lips pouting. He chuckles walking over to her.

“What jealous?” He asked.

She rolls her eyes, “So what she give you?” He pulls out the box and Tali gasps.

“Turian Chocolates?” Luna gasps as well grabbing them from his hand and opening them.

“I love Turian Chocolates! And it’s the milk chocolate kind!? Okay, I don’t hate her anymore.” Grabbing one of the little chocolates she groans in pleasure as she bites into it. Tali looked horrified and Luna notices.

“I…”

“Do you want one?” She asks clearly not noticing the shock in the young Qurian.

Garrus snatches his chocolates, “You forget who these belong to?” Luna giggles and starts to walk ahead of them. Zaeed notices Tali was still in shock.

“You’ll understand the more your around.” And he kept walking after a minute Tali follows them.

Garrus saw Anderson and Laena speaking to one another. Navi was sitting there bored as people went inside the Normandy. When she saw Luna she jumps up and ran after her.

“Lulu! HI! I am so glad to see you. I was so bored!” Navi loudly said.

Luna chuckles, “Why aren’t you inside working on your machines?” Luna asks.

Navi rolls her eyes, “Even that becomes boring. I was working on something, but I couldn’t stay still for too long. I am waiting for Kenn to finish working on the Mako. Said he needs to get it ready for you.” Kenn walks out of the Normandy and towards Navi.

“Okay, it’s finished. What did you need my help with Navi?” Navi beams and grabs his arm.

“Let’s go Kenn I have something to show you!”

“Navi wait!” Luna calls out and they turn around.

“Huh?”

“Kenn this is Tali, she wanted to know how things are here. Think you could convince her I’m the real deal? The information she has is very valuable.” Kenn looks at Tali and nods.

“You can follow us if you want and we can talk then.” Tali looks wearily but ultimately follows.

“Hey, Shepard, I need to go to my apartment for something. Don’t leave without me.” Luna nods to him and smiles. Zaeed walks by her into the Normandy.

“Remember I need your help, Shepard.” He calls out and disappears. 

Luna walked over to her mother and Anderson with a smile.

“Hey.”

“Hello, honey.”

“Lulu looking to leave us huh?” Anderson asks.

She nods, “Of course, got a really big mission to do.” A grin on her face.

“I was telling your mother about Mindoir.” Luna tenses and looks to her mother.

“Mom?”

“Nothing crazy, just remembering the past. John left a lockbox for us there and they found it. It is coded to our DNA so it won’t open unless we're there.” Luna sucks in her breath and nods.

“Okay…so we go there then?” Laena touches her cheek and smiles.

“I’m sure It’s a memory John wouldn’t want us to just forget.”

*****

Garrus made it back to the apartment; he didn’t know how long it was going to be before he came back and he wanted to have everything he needed. When he saw Iika he stopped in his tracks and she turns towards him, anger in her eyes.

“Guess it’s time to talk huh?” He asks and she glares at him.

“I want to know.” He sighs and gives her a lazy look.

“Look, I am sorry Iika, but I told you multiple times I didn’t want a relationship. All I wanted was to have sex no strings attached. You agreed to it. No one told you to meet with my family or friends.”

“Why?” She asks and he looks away from her, guiltiness setting inside of him.

“Why what?”

“Why her?” He shook his head.

“It’s not like that.”

“I’m not an idiot Garrus Vakarian. Why her? Why that….that…”

“Don’t even say it.” He growls making her not finish her sentence. She glares at him and the sounds she was making were causing him to feel annoyed and guilty all at once.

“You left me for her.”

“I didn’t leave anyone I told you it was only sex.”

“I don’t care! You left me for a thing!” 

He punches the wall, “Don’t call her that!” He shouts.

“Or what? You’ll hurt me?” Did she sound hopeful?

He took a deep breath calming down, “No, just leave. You deserve a man who would be there for you at your beckoning. You deserve happiness, a family, and stability. I am not that man for you not now, not ever. I am sorry, but this is officially over between us, Iika. You need to let me go.” She stood there for a moment staring and shaking. So many memories with him flash before her eyes. More anger course through her veins, more hurt from her heart.

“You’ll throw away a normal life for that freak?! Your father and sister love me! I could be everything you want! I could give you children!” She yells hoping to get to him. 

Hearing her call Luna a freak made him angry. Pissed. He was being kind before, but now fuck it. Iika won’t listen to kind words. He looked at her with anger in his eyes and she felt a little fear. He then starts to grin; his eyes going dark.

“Heh who said she couldn’t give me children?” He knew it wasn't possible, but he wanted her to hurt for calling Luna a freak.

She stares in horror, “You honestly believe that freak could give you children.” He really was starting to hate that word.

“And if she could what would you do about it?” She glares and slashes at him with her talons; he dodges quickly grabbing her hand.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if she does. I hope any child she has with you die within her womb. A disgusting freak shouldn’t be allowed to breed.” He pushes her away and starts to growl warning her to leave; she gasps while backing up in fear.

“I said to stop calling her freak! Iika…Leave.” He growls holding his hand in a fist tightly.

“Hey, Garrus I forg…Garrus?” Luna questions while walking over the seething man. When she saw him shaking in anger she grabs his hand hoping to calm him down. He was breathing heavily and his mandibles were twitching angrily. Iika still stood there in fear of his gaze. 

Luna touches his face with her hands and turns his head towards her looking him in his eyes. He blinks and realizes Luna standing in front of him.

“Luna…” He looks at her for a moment before his eyes went back to Iika who was still terrified but was starting to become angry again as she stares at the way Luna held Garrus. 

Luna turns his head back to her. “Don’t look at her, look at me. Don’t think of her, think of me.” She whispers and he calms down. She then leans forward and kisses his mouth plates. His heart was beating rapidly, but he kisses her back taking her in. The world disappeared it was just them; his arms held her tightly to him.

She pulls away from him touching his chest and he sighs. 

“Sorry…just frustrated.” She gives him a reassuring smile.

“It’s okay.” His forehead met hers and she closes her eyes. It was a quiet moment between them.

“You both deserve each other.” Luna pulls away from Garrus and gave a look of pity at the female Turian. She was going to say something but Garrus stood in front of her.

“Iika I’m sorry for not ending it when I should. Shepard isn’t at fault here it’s me. I was the one who did what I did and I am sorry. I understand if you hate me.” 

Iika glared at both of them before letting out a depressing sound and walking away. Garrus looked down staring at the floor his entire being was filled with guilt.

_‘It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have let it gone on for too long…she deserves better.’_

“I’m worthless,” he whispers and Luna looked at him sadly.

“Don’t say that.” She whispers and touches his face.

“It was my fault it ended up this way. I should have ended it. Everything that goes wrong in my life is my fault; and I deserve it.” He was making depressing sounds and Luna was starting to really feel bad.

“This should be more private. Come on let's go into your apartment.” Luna grabs his arm and pulls him towards his door 

Once inside Luna sat him down and looked at him. His head was in his hands trying to get over the guilty feeling.

“Garrus talk to me.” He shook his head not knowing what to say.

_‘All your fault!’_

_‘Coward.’_

_‘She’s hurting because of you.’_

_‘You let us die, how could you!?’_

_‘You should have died’_

_‘Why don’t you just kill yourself right now?’_

_‘Not like you’re going to be missed. After all…you deserve to die.’_

“Garrus please talk to me.” She begs to pull his head up to look at her.

“Everything I touch I ruin. You should leave me before it happens to you.” He whispers touching her face. 

She chuckles softly, “I’m already ruined silly.” They stared at each other for a moment and he chuckles shaking his head.

“You’re not ruined, don’t say that.” He murmurs. 

She smiles, “Then don’t say everything you touch you’ll ruin.” He sighs leaning back on the chair and closing his eyes.

“This sucks.”

“Tell me what’s wrong, big guy. You know I’m here for you.” She said rubbing his hand out of comfort.

He turned his head to her, “It should have been me. I should have been the one to die not them. Maybe then I wouldn’t have caused this stupid issue. I wouldn’t have hurt Iika. Mayre…” He stops and takes a deep breath. She waits for him to continue as he tries to gather his thoughts.

“All they wanted was a change on Omega. To have a family there and not worry about losing someone they love. They all worked so hard to achieve it and nothing’s changed. They died in vain and I am the only one to live after failing my team. Then I used Iika to run away from the pain of losing my team. I am a coward and a bad leader.” He stops talking and Luna takes his hand into hers.

“Garrus you are not a coward, and you are a great leader. You lead a team of civilians and did amazing things on Omega. You did not fail them, you were betrayed.” She pointed out to him hoping he understands how great he is.

“It doesn't matter if I was betrayed, Shepard! Don't you get it! I ran away from my family. My responsibilities. My role as a damn Turian! Couldn’t even end a damn relationship when it was needed! I should have hunted down every single leader and killed them off for what they did! Instead, I ran away from Omega like a damn coward!” He shouts and she touches his knee and he takes in a breath.

“A coward wouldn’t have gone back to their family. A coward would keep running away from his responsibilities. You are a damn good Turian and solider. What happened with Iika was not the best, but it’s not all your fault. She had a choice, and her choice was to keep sleeping with you knowing you harbor no feelings for her. Hunting down the leaders would have been suicide. You can’t just one man army your way to victory!” Now she was shouting and they looked at each other in the eyes.

“Why…why did they have to die? Why couldn’t I be a better leader? I should have been there to protect them.” Luna sighs and grabs his hands looking at him with sorrow.

“Being a leader is tough and sometimes…shit happens. Doesn’t mean it’s your fault. When I was seventeen I had three friends. We had a little thieving group on Omega and I was the leader of it. One of us was too close to one of the gang members and paid the ultimate price, their life. I blamed myself for weeks for letting it get too far, but I concluded that it wasn’t my fault.”

“How did you get over their death?” He asks in hope for some answers to his problem.

“I accepted their death just like I did my fathers. Sometimes I think about a future of them alive or the past when they were alive. I get sad, I cry and then accept it all over again. Tell me Garrus have you mourn their deaths?” 

He sat there and pondered sightly disappointed, “No…after I was saved I went into Spectre training and was told to let it go.” Luna sighs and looked at him sadly.

“You should mourn them. Letting go isn’t about trying to erase the past, it about accepting what happened.” He started to see their ghosts again. All of them staring at him.

“How?” His heart was pounding in his chest quickly he felt like he was going insane from their stares.

“Well, one way is by facing your demons. When I was entering the Alliance I saw my father’s ghost. It was hard seeing him everywhere I went. I would tell him to go away and sob for him to leave me alone. Eventually, I stopped and accepted him, my father was dead and that was never going to change. I started to think of the better times when I was young and his stilly dancing, it helped. This isn’t full proof though everyone is different. Sometimes I would still feel depressed knowing he died, but I accepted it.” She squeezes his hand.

“I have a friend on the ship her name is Kelly Chambers. She’s good at listening and helping people through a lot. Maybe you can give her a shot?” She smiles sweetly at him.

Garrus rolls his eyes and looks away from her, “That sounds like therapy.” He growls.

Luna looks at him confused, “What’s wrong with Therapy?”

“It makes me feel weak. Turians don’t do therapy, we instead spar, drink, or fuck.” He said matter-a-factly. 

Luna glares at him, “Weak? Do I look weak to you? Therapy is important when it comes to keeping yourself stable. Sometimes you just can’t do it alone. It’s okay to ask for help. I won’t force you to go to her Garrus, but just…think about it?” She pleads with him and he sighs.

“I’ll think about it.” She smiles and stands up.

“Great, now I need to find what I came here for….ahh!” She grabs her book. “There we go was scared I lost this one. Then my collection would have been incomplete! So…coming back with me?” 

“You go on without me, just need to pack a few things.” She nods and heads to the door.

“Just think about it ok Garrus. See you on the ship.” Garrus stared where she was and turns around to see them looking at him. Sucking in his breath he nods at them.

“You are dead, I am sorry, and I accept that.” He took a deep breath with his eyes closed, before opening them and seeing they were not there. He then starts to pack.

*****

Luna stares out into the vast open space as Joker takes them to Mindoir. He kept glancing at her and she was getting a little annoyed by it.

“Joker if you want to talk just talk!”

“Well sorry, Shepard, just wondering how my best friend in the entire galaxy is handling going back to her birthplace.” She closes her eyes and sighs.

“Yeah…I don’t know what to feel. I mean it feels so foreign like I never was there at all. All those memories just that…memories.” Joker gave her a small smile.

“Hey, good memories right? Nothing wrong with reliving some good memories.” She nods.

“You’re right.” Everything became a nice silence as Luna thought about her past on Mindoir.

“I wonder how Hilary is doing,” Joker asks thinking out loud.

“Navi would love to speak to her again. I think they were chatting with each other the other day, maybe we can visit Tiptree?” Luna grin at him.

Joker grins, “Oh yeah, that would be awesome. I miss my family. I'm sure Hilary misses my jokes.” He said laughing a bit.

Luna gave him the side-eye, “You sure she misses your jokes? They are always so…corny.” She giggles.

“Hey, corny is great thank you very much. Unlike you, our sisters love my jokes!” He boasted. 

“Navi just has a crush on you so she’ll laugh at anything you say.” She teases.

Joker gasp, “You believe Navi has a crush on everyone!” They both laughed. After a few minutes pass Luna thought of Garrus.

“I wonder if Garrus would join me…” She whispers to herself. 

Joker rolls his eyes, “Of all the nights sitting here talking to you about how annoying this Spectre is. I never guessed you’d fall for him.” Luna glares at him.

“I haven’t fallen for him; he’s just a good friend, that’s all.” She pouts.

“Oh yeah? When the hell did that happened?”

She thought for a moment before answering, “Honestly I think it was after that weird space station that was taken over by the VI.” 

Joker nods, “Oh, I remember that one. We had to get someone who could get you out, but it didn’t matter because you and Garrus found a way out. You never told me what happened there.” Luna bit her lips and played a bit with her hair.

“He stopped me when I was losing my shit. I saw a syringe and I lost it. Since then every time we met it felt like old friends meeting each other for a game. There were times he just let me go, and other times we worked together. Remember Helena Blake?”

“I remember that mission…wait! You guys worked together on that one?” Luna laughs and nods.

“Oh yeah, Garrus had my six on that one. He was looking into Helena for criminal activity and I needed some information. Doesn’t help that her bosses at the time were working with Batarian slavers. We met while I was under fire. We bantered, shot a lot of mercs, and I got my information. He told me I need to work on my sniper aim, and I told him he needs to work on that stick up his ass.”

“Hey, I did say your aim was really good for a Human.” Both Joker and Luna turned around to see Garrus behind them smirking. 

Luna rolls her eyes, “I swear Vakarian talk about my aim again and I’ll beat you down.” She laughs.

“I like to see you try Shepard. Or should I say, Luna?” He says with a deep voice looking at her with intense desire. Luna bit her lower lip seductively while looking in his eyes.

“Get a room damn!” Joker laughs ruining the moment.

Luna broke eye contact, “Remember the MSV Estevanico? That…was not fun.” Luna shivers thinking back to all the close calls on that mission. 

“I remember you telling me to get the hell out of here so you can get your information and immediately about to fall to your death.” Garrus chuckles and Joker laughs hard.

“That’s why you didn’t want to talk about it!” Joker shouts, she rolls her eyes at him for saying that.

“I just needed that damn information and Vakarian here was being an annoyance again.”

“This annoyance saved your ass.”

“And my ass thanks you for it.” She flirts.

“It better,” he whispers under his breath only Luna could hear. 

She giggles and looked at Garrus challenging him, “Or what? Sir.” She smirks, Garrus looked at her with desire and Joker gave her a questioning look.

“Sir?” This snaps them out of their moment, again, and Luna stands up.

“Well, Joker it’s been fun, but I want to shower and relax before we land. How close are we?”

“ETA 5 hours Commander.” EDI answers and Joker rolls his eyes.

“I could have said that.”

“It was not my intention to take this small job from you.” 

Luna laughs, “EDI is getting sassy Joker watch out.” Before he could reply she walks away, Garrus right behind her.

“Hey.” She smiles and slows down.

“Hey, you look better.” He chuckles feeling the relief he’s been begging to feel for a while now.

“Yeah, thanks for the advice on seeing Chambers. Talking to her allowed this weight on me to lift. I still feel heavy at times, but it's better.” She wraps her arms around his waist and squeezes him. For Turians, their waist was a sensitive area. With Luna touching and squeezing this sensitive area; it made him remember his sexual frustration and he internally groans.

“It's a start and I’m so happy for you, and you said therapy was a weakness.” She mocks. As they walked on the bridge Garrus felt less burden by working with others. The people on the bridge were talking among themselves. There were multiple races as well such as Salarian, Asari, and Turian besides him and Navi. 

“How did you manage to have so many different races here?” She stops by her small computer to check her emails and turn to him.

“Did you forget we came from Omega? Most of the people here just wanted to get the hell out. The pay is pretty good here, the food is divine with my mom and garner cooking, and it’s just, I don’t know, a place that is okay with different species. Doesn’t mean everyone is holding hands and there are no problems. People have their differences and judgments. It’s also why I don’t have my Krogan allies on board, but they keep me updated on shit. I don’t speak to Batarians at all, but I am connected with a few Volus, three are in the information room if you missed them; there are also a few Hanar, Drell, and I think one Elcor might be more, that I have connections with off this ship.” She leans on the bridge's railing with a smile on her face. 

“And here I thought everyone got along just fine here.” He said leaning beside her.

She laughs, “This ship has rules and people follow them. I don’t ask everyone to love one another all I ask is for respect, and people listen.” He stares at her as an Asari came up to give her a datapad she nods and thanks her.

“You are well respected here it seems. Like a true leader.” He felt a bit jealous of her, and yet he admires her for it.

She blinks, “Leadership has been in my family blood for decades. My father was going to become an admiral, and he was an N7 captain before he died. My mother was the leading scientist of…well, you know. My Grandmother, Hannah Shepard, she’s a Captain of SSV Orizaba in honor of my dad; it’s the reason why she turned down becoming an admiral. My Grandfather, Johnathan Shepard, father’s side, of course, was an admiral during the First Contact War, he must be rolling in his grave right now seeing how I am sleeping with a Turian.” Garrus coughs and Luna laugh at his reaction.

“So the Shepard’s are full of leaders. Do you still speak to your Grandmother?” Luna stops laughing.

“Yes, we speak with my Grandmother, and yes that includes Navi. It was a little weird when my mother told her about Navi, but she came around and was pretty happy. Things can be a little…hard when we bring up my history with the Alliance. She doesn’t know I work for the Shadow Broker, but I keep an eye on her making sure nothing happens. I lost my father and I don’t plan on losing my Grandmother.” She said under her breath.

“What about your mother’s side?”

“My mother doesn’t know what happened to them. When Eezo was a new thing, she was taken from them. In a form of punishment they disappeared, most likely died. It didn’t help that she was born poor on Earth where she was just thrown to the wolves after they made it illegal to take away and harm biotics.”

“Punishment? I guess your mother is pretty touchy about Earth?”

“Yeah…biotics was a very touchy subject back then. It was part of the ‘new things are scary need to control it’ phase of Humanity. My mother views Earth as any other planet Garrus, she’s moved on and dealt with too many horrible shit in her life to just sit and cry about what happened to her on Earth. She used her intelligence to get her out by the time she was eighteen and went to study to achieve her dream of becoming a scientist. That’s when she and my father met.” She sighs.

He nods, “Sorry to bring it up.”

“It’s okay. Humans have progressed from that. Not saying we stopped trying to control what we don’t know. My mother, despite everything that happened to us, has found a balance in her life. She’s what Humans would call a Buddhist believe it or not. Yes, Navi and I can drive her crazy. Yes, she can seem scary sometimes; but she’s pretty balanced. I am not someone who can explain to you about Buddhism and how she practices it if you want to learn more about that either go on the extranet or just ask my mother.” Calling the elevator they waited.

“Yeah, your mother told me about finding balance in her life. How did you and Kelly meet?” She giggles.

“Kelly and I met when I was really down on my luck. My ex just broke up with me and I wanted to swear off men. Doesn’t help that the Alliance discharged me. This was before my ship of course so I was using other ships to get back home. I went to this gentleman club and saw her dancing. She was good looking and I watched.” Garrus was taken aback.

“Dancing? She’s a dancer?”

Luna nods, “Yes. I gave her credits and left the club. The next day I came back to watch her and she noticed this time. With a smile on her face, she persuaded me to have a one on one session with her.” Garrus starts to picture the outcome and nods. Luna punches his arm to take him out of his thoughts. 

“Isn't as hot as you think Sir!” 

He laughs, “Damn,” he said in disappointment.

“We never got far. We made out which was nice, but when it was going to go further I stopped her. I got too emotional so we ended up talking and I cried telling her why I was there. She…listened and it felt nice. When the Alliance blacklisted and kicked me out I was just…not myself. And then Ka…my ex broke up with me, God I was a wreck. I talked to her for days after the second visit; she decided to just hang out with me as a friend. I left after staying there for a month and soon after I started working for the Shadow Broker. Used my skills to get information, my anger to kill whoever got in my way, and my ruthlessness to not give a shit. After stealing the plans for the Normandy I got a big payday and created her. Every cent went into this ship. Once she was built I picked up people who I have met after my blacklisting and she was one of them.”

“Can I ask why you were blacklisted?” Her eyes grew dark remembering and Garrus touches her shoulder. 

“Can I tell you another day?” She mumbles and gave him a sad smile.

He nods, “Well, that’s quite a story. Sad to there was no sex. I would have never thought I would want to see two Human females have sex, but after you I am curious.” She laughs and pokes his chest the door to the elevator opens to deck 1.

“Maybe Chambers would do it. Although she does have a girlfriend so I don't know if it would work.” Luna winks at him. He chuckles still standing in the elevator as she walks out.

“Damn.” Before the door closes she gasps.

“Wait! Do…do you think you can come with me to visit my old home?” 

He looked surprised, “Really? Are you sure?” She fumbles a bit with her fingers slightly shy.

“Yeah, I would like that. Of course, if you don’t want to that’s fine.” She says in a hurry and she chuckles.

“I’ll be there.” He said in that sexy deep voice that When the elevator closes Luna slaps her forehead.

“Come on confidence! Why does he keep making me feel weird?”

 _‘Because you have feelings for him.’_ She growls.

“No, I don’t!”

“You don’t what Shepard?” EDI asks. Luna jumps and bits her lips.

“Uh…nothing EDI contact me when we’re at Mindoir.”

“Yes, Commander. Logging you out.”

***

Landing on Mindoir was different to Luna; she didn’t feel any strong emotions as she walked the streets heading to her old home of twenty-three years ago. Navi felt nervous as the Humans were looking at her strange, but most importantly this was her family home. This place was supposed to be the home of Human Navi, not her. Laena felt a lot of sadness walking here old memories of John still plague the old streets even if it’s been rebuilt plenty of times.

Garrus was the first to speak after coughing getting the female's attention.

“So, may I ask how long has it been?”

“Twenty-three years. This place has seen battle other times as Batarians did not like Humans occupying this colony. The Alliance has finally grown in strength to have full control here and now it’s being rebuilt, hopefully for the final time.” Laena states a small smile on her face when they passed a tree. 

“I feel old…” Luna groans a little and Garrus laughs.

“How old are you?” They looked at him baffled he puts his arms up.

“How dare you ask me how old I am!? You can’t ask a lady how old she is!" She barks at him before giggles, "I am twenty-nine.” She admits laughing at him Navi giggles and Laena kept looking ahead smiling.

“Twenty-nine? You do know Humans, and Turians by the way, have a life span of one hundred and fifty years right?” 

“I said I feel old, not I am old! How old are you, big guy!?” Poking him in his arms as he chuckles.

“Thirty-one.” He shrugs taking her hand in his to stop her from poking him. Luna bit her lips as they held hands behind her mother and sister. When they intertwine their fingers her heart was beating fast and loud, she was almost sure someone could hear it. Garrus was nervous as well hoping nothing would stop this moment and have her pull away from him. He notices some stares, but since Luna didn’t care he didn’t either. 

“How old are you, mommy?” Navi asks after a bit of time passed.

“Me? I am fifty-eight. Not old yet, but getting there” 

“You’re still pretty young.” Navi states and Laena chuckles.

When they finally made it to the old Shepard home it was very run down with holes in many places, but it brought wonderful memories to Luna and Laena. The two Alliance soldier’s posted gave them an annoyed look.

“We are not here to entertain, we are waiting for the Shepard’s.” 

“We also don’t allow aliens here.” One of them said glaring at the group. Luna was about to say something, but Laena smiles at them.

“I am Laena Shepard these are my daughters and son. If you do not give me what I have come here for I will not hesitate to bring this offense to my good friend David Anderson.” Garrus was a bit surprised at being called her son. The two soldiers look to one another.

“Sorry, ma’am didn’t know. The lockbox is on the counter where we were told to leave it.” She nods and walks forward with the others following.

Luna instantly walked towards her old bedroom while Navi stayed by Laena playing with her fingers.

“Garrus come here!” She calls out and Garrus walk over to where she was. When he enters it was a small room with a ruined bed. Luna was on her knees looking for something, and Garrus got a nice view of her ass.

“You know teasing me gets you punished.” She laughs while looking under the bed and starts wiggling her ass.

“Am I being bad Sir?” She gasps when he slaps and grabs her ass. She pulls herself out of her bed and pokes him.

“Yes, and you will get punished as I said.” Rolling her eyes she brings up a beaten up stuff toy. It was a fox, but it was missing its tail and eye.

“Look at Mr. Fox! My dad gave this to me when I was younger. I can’t believe he survived for so long.” She says smiling with her eyes closed, but Garrus can hear the sadness in her voice. Grabbing her chin he studies her face and notices she was trying to hold back tears.

“It’s okay Sh…Luna you can cry.” Tears fell from her eyes and he held her tight. 

“Hey, Luna, mommy opened the box.” Navi whispers and they pull apart. Whipping her eyes she nods and they made their way over to Laena. Inside was an old picture, John’s dog tags, and a note. Luna looked at the picture and smiled. It was a week before the attack; her mother, who was seven months pregnant, was being held by her father and Luna was holding her old cat, midnight, in her arms.

“Your father looks…strong.” 

Luna giggles punching his arm, “My dad was strong! What are you scared he could kick your ass?” Garrus chuckles and looks back at the photo. John was a pretty big guy as tall as a Turian Garrus thought. He was a fair-skinned athletic man toned in muscle with short black hair and blue eyes.

“Maybe.” He said almost in awe. He wondered if they would be good friends or not.

Laena smiles touching his face in the photo, “He was very attractive to many Human women, and according to David among some aliens as well. I was very insecure being with him when we were dating, but he remained faithful to me. I remember this one time a woman threw a drink at me after trying to lie about him cheating on me with her.” She laughs.

“How did you know?”

“I told her that was impossible, as we were making love that night.” 

“Ew gross.” Luna cringes at that image.

“When was this taken?” Navi whispers.

“It was a week before the attack.” She nods and remains quiet. Laena notices and takes her head in her hands. 

“Navi what’s wrong?” She looks to the side avoiding her mother’s eyes.

“Nothing.” Laena touches her mandibles that were flaring telling the truth.

“Navi.”

“I still feel like a replacement for her” Pointing at Laena’s pregnant stomach in the photo.

“What?” Laena gasps.

“The real Navi, the Human Navi. I know it’s stupid. I know you love me, but sometimes…sometimes I feel like she had to die for me to be your daughter. I just…haven’t let go of the times you expect me to but like her! Being here reminded me of the way you treated me.” She whispers.

“Naviana she did not die so that I could be your mother. I…" She sighs sadly looking in Navi's eyes with regret, "Yes in the beginning I forced my expectation of her onto you and I was one hundred percent wrong. She is a past I would never forget, but I did let go of her many years ago. I have grieved her. I am so sorry for treating you as such when you were growing up. Please don’t think of yourself as a replacement. You are Naviana Shepard, and I love you my little Turian.” Their foreheads touch and Laena cried softly while Navi made multiple sounds ranging from sadness to happiness and acceptance. 

*****

Back on the ship, Luna walked into the battery to see Garrus calibrating.

“Why am I not surprised.” She chuckles crossing her arms.

He chuckles and looks over his shoulder to her, “I have you know this upgraded gun is going to make you come for me.” He said with his mandibles twitching. 

She gasps and punches his arm lightly, “Garrus.” She laughs before realizing the double meaning and punches him again, "Garrus!" She shouts this time now doubling over in laughter.

He crosses his arm and flexes his muscles, “You know I’ve been calculating each time you have punched me in my arm, Luna” He purrs seductively. It never hurt when she punches him, he notices she only did it lightly as a friendly tap on the arm.

She smirks, “Oh do I get punished then?” Her hands touching one of his mandibles that moved. Grabbing her hand he turns his face getting close to hers.

“When the time comes? Oh yes.” She giggles and after some time as passed her face turns serious.

“Thank you for coming with us…with me.” They stared into each other’s eyes.

_‘I really am falling for this Human.’_

_‘Maybe…it’s time to let Kaidan go.’_


	13. Trust

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Heading to Tuchanka isn't a big deal, but trusting is one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter contains lite BDSM play you have been warned. I am not a master at being a dom, since I am a sub, but I think I did a good job.

It’s been a week since the trip to Mindoir. They were still trying to pinpoint where Maelon would be on Tuchanka. Many locations were owned by Clan Weyrloc and Luna prefers to have the exact location. During this time Luna would always end up in the battery talking to Garrus. To others it was quite obvious they have taken a liking to each other, but Luna doesn’t see it that way.

Garrus on the other hand knew he felt something for her and now he was pacing in the battery feeling very frustrated not just with himself, but sexually frustrated. Luna left a few hours ago after they spoke to one another; she had an important vid com with the Shadow Broker. When they were talking things were getting very intense and she was willing to ‘play’ with him. This was a turn on since there was a potential for them to get caught. But she had to leave and so they said a few words to each other which was fine, but it left him wanting more and not just sexually, but romantically.

_‘Come on Garrus remember what she said. She doesn’t want to be with you. At least not in that way.’_

A chime from his Omni-tool took him out of his thoughts. When he saw the message he stopped pacing and read the message.

_“Hey come up? Bring the toys.”_ \- L 

_‘Finally’_ He thought

He was looking forward to finally exploring things with Luna after their ‘talk’ hoping she wouldn’t keep him waiting any longer. Garrus never pushed for her to have fun with him as this was something that wasn’t ‘normal’. He knew Turians were fond of this type of play, but Luna was different. Not only was she Human, even if he watched many Humans engage in the sexual activity he’s into, it didn’t help that she has a pretty horrific past but she kept insisting she wants this. So who was he to disappoint? He still had to wait for her to get into the mood to ‘play’, sadly this meant they haven’t had sex since his apartment, so he was pent up. Another chime caught his attention.

_“Going to take a shower first. Join if you want. *wink*”_ \- L 

Grabbing their ‘toy box’, he set out to meet in her cabin. That’s when he saw Laena talking with Navi, and she wasn’t looking too happy. Garrus curse under his breath and he realizes how awkward it will be talking to Laena while having their ‘toy box’ in his hands.

Navi gasps at Garrus and rushes over to him.

“Garrus hi! Look can you tell my mother here that it’s okay for me to join you guys? I won’t be fighting of course, but I want to visit Tuchanka.” Laena stares at him and he tenses.

“Uh…I don’t think I have a say on this.” He says warily of the older Shepard.

Navi groans and glares at his box, “What is that?” She asks.

He nervously chuckles, “Nothing you have to worry about.” He starts to walk past them hoping no one stops him.

“Garrus are you going to see my daughter?” He stops in his tracks and turns to see her narrowing her eyes at him.

“I…uh…yes? Just need to talk to her about the mission.” She nods and turns back to Navi.

“Can you tell her Navi might be joining her on this mission.” Navi gasps and hugs her mother tightly and Garrus nods.

“Thank you, mommy!” Navi was practically jumping at this point.

“I said might!” Laena said sternly.

“So basically yes! Yes!” She shouts while fist-pumping.

Once inside the elevator he sighs and starts to become nervous. This would be the first time he’s been to her cabin, and he was curious about how it looks.

The door opens automatically when he steps off the elevator and the first thing he saw was a fish tank full of exotic fish. The décor in the tank was nice and the fish seem to enjoy it. Walking inside he could hear singing in the shower. It was soft and quiet, but he could hear the words clearly. Was it a love song?

Putting the box down; he walks towards the bathroom and thought about his choices. He could just walk in there and join her as she'd offered, or he could just wait. Knowing why he was up here, and since she gave him the okay, he decided to take his clothes off and walk inside.

Luna was singing and washing her hair not noticing the Turian walking in behind her. When he wraps his arms around her waist; she stiffens for a moment and stops singing before relaxing after recognizing who it is. Leaning her head back she looks up to him a smile playing on her face.

“Hey.”

He chuckles, “You sound beautiful.” He said huskily, and she looks away from him bashfully trying to find a way to relax her quickly beating heart.

“Really?” He holds her tighter on the waist and felt the water hit his body. Although it’s not as hot as he would like it, he enjoyed it.

“Yes, you should sing more often.” He said rubbing head against her hair enjoying the lavender smell.

She shook her head, “My mother is the singer of the family. I just…no.” He turns her around his mandibles moving as he smiles at her.

“Well, could you sing for me? I wouldn’t mind being the only one.” 

She reaches up and touches his face smiling, “For you anything.” She whispers before standing on her tippy toes and kissing his mouth plates. The kiss was slow and nice before becoming intense as she starts to moan and he grabs her waist tighter. It was when she pulled back that water poured on her face causing her to gasp. His carapace continues to rain the shower water on her as she looks at him and starts laughing.

“Sorry.” He says through laughter. After their shower, Garrus notice the towel she was using to dry her hair and narrows his eyes. She was humming while looking at herself in the mirror, no longer scared to look at her scars. When Garrus appeared behind her she looks at his eyes through the mirror.

“What?”

“Is that my towel from the apartment?” She stops moving and starts looking everywhere but his face.

“Uh…no?” Before he could say anything she walked out the bathroom and into her cabin. He follows wanting to know the answer but stops as he examines her room. Besides the fish tank; he notices how large her cabin was. There were two desks one upstairs and another downstairs. The upstairs level consists of a display case for model ships, a space hamster, and her computer. On the desk was a picture of her in a bikini on a beach somewhere. She was posing for the camera with her hands in her hair while on her knees, smiling. On the lower level of the cabin, there was a sofa, another desk with datapads, her collar, a family photo, and a very large bed.

_‘Why does a human her size need a bed this size for?’_

Looking at Luna he saw that she was rubbing lotion on her thighs and gave her a look of confusion.

“What are you doing?” He asks.

She looks at him and chuckles, “Mordin knows what we are doing. I had to ask him. I enjoyed our time at the apartment, but it did leave some…uh…rashes on my skin. I could not go to my mother, so I had to settle with Mordin. This cream is supposed to help with the…uh…chafing.” He blinks, she blinks. In an awkward silence, she continues to rub herself with the lotion.

Then it clicks, “That’s why he gave me some antihistamine. I knew what it was for, but I was surprised he gave it to me. ‘I already have my own’, I told him but he insisted I use his. Said it last longer than the ones from the stores.” He nervously chuckles.

“Wow, how long?” She continues to lotion her body.

“You don’t use it?” She gave a ‘really?’ look and he didn’t get it.

“Dextro and Levo base is fine for me. Remember?” He cringes at his forgetfulness and she giggles going back to rubbing.

“Sorry…um…two months, then I would have to dose again.” She nods and he continues to look around the cabin as she prepares herself for their, 'adventure'.

He notes the places that were made for Archangel. His food and water bowls were in one corner. While on one side was an odd-looking thing that Garrus didn’t understand what it was.

“That’s his cat tree.” He turns to her with confusion.

“Cat tree?”

“Yes, it’s where Archangel would play and file his claws. Maybe you should try it.” She giggles and he rolls his eyes. He was curious though and walks over to it. He stares at the 'cat tree' suspiciously before using his talons and giving it a nice scratch.

_‘That felt oddly good.’_

As he kept doing it there was a sense of calmness through his body.

“Hey! That’s Archangels, not yours!” He stops, blinking away his trance and looks over to see her sitting on the bed a smile on her face with her collar on.

“Sorry, that felt oddly good.” She giggles and opens her legs wide for him to see her sex.

“I know what else would feel good, Sir.” His plates shifted and he coughs. Walking over to their 'box of toys' he pulls out the ball gag.

“Your voice will be muffled, but I would understand when you use the safety word.” She swallows then nods as he walks over to her and places it in her mouth. He walks back to the box and pulls out an electric bondage rope. Turning around to see her sitting there shyly turns him on.

“Before I tie you up turn around and put your hands on the bed.” She looks at him confused before doing as she was told. He stares at her ass hungrily, it was just so soft and big.

“Show me your ass and spread your legs.” She opens her legs while standing, bends forward, hands flat on the bed, and pushes her ass out for him. Giggling, she starts to shake it at him, and then he slaps it, hard. She grabs the bed and moans at the pain.

“I still remember how much you punch my arm.” Slaps a second time, she starts to shake.

“I told you, I was going to punish you.” Slaps a third time, her toes curl and he smells her arousal.

“You like my punishment?” Slaps a fourth time, she moans loudly.

“I didn’t hear you.” Slaps a fifth time, she grabs the sheets tightly.

“Shepard, I asked you a question.” Slaps a sixth time, she moans louder this time.

“Louder.” Slaps a seventh time, her knees buckled and her ass dips a little.

“Show me your ass.” He commanded and she groans shakenly before lifting her ass.

“Very good Luna.” He said huskily before rubbing her ass and squeezing it with his talons causing her to bleed a little, she whimpers.

“Are you going to be good from now on, Luna?” He asks making sure to use the tone she finds very desirable; she nods and he squeezes again.

“I didn’t hear you.” She moans loudly.

“Good. Now show me your ass and spread your legs. You have two more punches to answer for.” As she did what she was told Garrus gave her a ninth slap which causes her to grabs the sheets tightly. Her arousal was getting stronger and he could tell from her reaction what was going to happen.

“Don’t come until I tell you to.” She whimpers and nods.

“I didn’t hear you, Shepard.” Slaps for the tenth time, and she screams. She closes her eyes biting into the gag as saliva leaks from the holes. 

“Are you going to be good from now on, Luna?” She moans a yes and he grabs the electric bondage rope.

“Bring your arms behind your back.” After putting her arms behind her back; he ties her arms together and ran his talons down her sides gently making her squirm in pleasure and pain. He then pushes his cock into her roughly and sighs in relief at her tight hole squeezing him. She groans, her head was on the bed sideways as she arches her back and bit harder onto her gag as he starts to pump in and out of her.

His hand gripped her waist tightly keeping her under his control and his head looks up with his eyes close moaning as she squeezes him again and again. When his talons dug into her she moans louder and he starts to pants. He then leans forward and places one of his hands on her head pressing down as he groans into her ears whispering words of praise. The words of praise would then activate the electric shocks of the rope causing her to feel closer to the edge.

Luna’s body was on fire and her biotics wasn’t helping the situation. The pleasure was getting to her as she kept meeting him with each thrust. The usual hot pain was there, but the pain was different it was filled with pleasure. Can she really call it pain?

_‘This is so good. Too…good!’_

She was getting louder and was squeezing tighter and Garrus growls in her ears.

“Don’t come until I tell you to.” She was begging through her gag closing her eyes shut as he kept pounding into her. He then moves his hand from her head, reaches around her neck, and pulls her upright.

“One leg on the bed.” He commanded and she places her right leg on the bed. His other hand then starts to rub her clit as he pushes deep inside of her.

She was screaming now begging for him to make her come and he groans more. With his hand on her neck, he squeezes appropriately. Her head then leans back and he saw her closed eyes; he wasn’t happy about that.

“Look at me when I am fucking you.” Her eyes shot up and she stares at him. He was almost taken aback by her eyes starting to become black. Pulling himself out of her he spins her around and pushes her onto the bed. She gave a frightened scream before allowing her mini panic attack to subside when she hit the bed.

Luna didn’t have to wait too long to feel him inside of her as he held her legs wide open while she was halfway off the bed. She didn’t want to disobey her Sir and looks him in the eyes. Another shock from the electric rope pushes her to the edge causing her powers to activate. She was extremely close.

Watching her eyes change was strangely beautiful to him as he felt himself get closer. When her eyes became fully black he knew she couldn’t hold out anymore, but right now she is his submissive and she would do as he says.

“Don’t come until I tell you.” He whispers grunting. She kept repeating please through her gag while arching her back and he was enjoying it. Usually, when her eyes are like this she was in pain, but this time it was pleasure and he could tell. There were times when it would be brief after she comes, but it wasn’t the case here. When she started to glow blue/red Garrus was surprised and a bit frightened.

It wasn’t until Garrus could feel the fire of her biotics inside of him that his eyes went wide. His entire body was on fire full of pleasure; so ,much so he almost came right there.

_‘Spirits!’_

He leans down and stares into her eyes now pumping faster into her, he was close.

“Come for me, Luna.” He groans and she screams as her eyes went wider as she came. A wave of power shot through him and he groans not in pain, but pleasure as he felt himself explode inside of her. He laid on top of her for some time trying to regulate his breathing.

_‘What was that…?’_

He thought as he picks himself up and looks down at her. Her body was sweaty and there was some blood from his talons. Hair was a wild mess and she was salivating because of the ball gag from her mouth; she was looking at the stars as she rides her wave of pleasure. Garrus stares at her eyes and notices they still haven’t changed back like they usually do.

“Shepard?” He questions and she looks at him and smiles through the gag. He takes it off and she coughs slightly before gasping.

“That was…amazing. I admit I was terrified at being tied up, but for some reason having you tie me up felt…good.” She grins at him but then looks worried as he kept staring at her.

“Your eyes haven’t changed back.” She gasps and he pulls out of her feeling himself retract back inside of his body.

“Are you sure…I don’t feel anything! It should have changed by now!” She says laying there panicking, but Garrus just kept staring at her.

She looks at him in fear, “Why do you keep looking?!” He tried to say something but then watches as it went back to red eyes.

“It looked beautiful. It took my breath away.” She blinks at him for a moment and shyly looks away.

“Y...you are so cheesy! Shut up and untie me.” He chuckles and frees her from her restraints. She quickly grabs a towel and proceeds to clean herself off. He stood there watching before joining her on the bed and taking the towel away from her, wiping her down.

She shivers at his touch but smiles at the feeling of being taken care of. Garrus was debating on rather to tell her or not about what she did to him. As he continues to use the towel to clean her; he finally gained the courage to speak.

“Your powers are reacting differently,” he finally said.

She looked at him oddly, “What do you mean?” She asks in a panic.

He chuckles, “I felt it 'enter' me when you were coming for me. To be honest, it scared me, but then the explosive pleasure changed my mind very quickly." He scratches his neck in nervousness, "Would not be opposed to feeling it again. I feel pretty exhausted; it was strange, but in a good way.” His mandibles twitch excitedly.

“I…never had that happen before. The fact my eyes are lasting longer after I came is a red flag. Now you're telling me my powers are 'entering' you when I come?" She feels herself panic a little, "Maybe I should tell my mom," She whispers, "it’s going to be awkward though.” She bit her lips.

His eyes grew, “Um…no that’s fine why don’t we keep it a secret and see what happens in the future.” He said trying to reassure her. 

_‘What if I hurt you?’_ She thought feeling uneasy.

She looks unsure, “O…Okay.” She smiles trying to push the thought away.

“Powers aside I want to know how do you feel? Was it too harsh? What about the shocking?” He finishes cleaning her off and touches her arms.

“No wasn’t too harsh like I said I like it rough. The shocking part…wow! That was new! Just tingles on my arms, I am guessing it was on low settings?” He chuckles rubbing her arms lightly seeing a bit of marking.

“Yeah, I am not comfortable enough to go higher yet. So even if you asked I don’t think I would be able to do it.” He admits and she nods. Noticing his eyes on her arms and him rubbing the areas where there are marks. She touches his hand and smile at him.

“I know what you are thinking and it's okay. The rope itself wasn’t so bad just a bit tight, so next time a little looser. If you don’t mind I would like more bondage.” He looks at her and his brow plates raise.

“Oh?” He asks with his mandibles twitching in excitement.

She looks away bashfully, “Yeah, maybe on my legs as well?” She asks quietly. 

He leans forward and licks his mark on her causing her to shiver, “Whatever you want Luna, I might be your dom, but you are my sub and I aim to please my sub.” He whispers deeply in her ears and she giggles shyly then kisses his mouth plates deeply.

After their kissing she crawls further on the bed and plops down exhausted. While she moves around like a cat trying to find the right spot, he stood up and went to pick up his clothes to put it on.

“You’re not going to lay down with me?” He stops momentarily and looks to her. The bed does look comfortable, but should he? The more he’s with her the more he wants to be with her and she doesn’t want that, but she’s offering…Garrus was conflicted.

As he debated with himself Luna watched him while having her own internal debate.

_‘What the hell? Why did you invite him to bed?’_

_“It’s not like we haven’t slept together before.”_

_‘This is different!’_

_“How?”_

_‘You have feelings for him!’_

Luna glares and jumps up out of bed then process to grab him by his arm. She pulls him into bed with her and sighs when she felt his arms on her.

_‘No, I don’t because I still love Kaidan’_

“Here’s an extra pillow for your fringe.” She smiles lazily giving him another big pillow he chuckles.

“Thanks. Much appreciated.”

“How do Turians sleep? I noticed at your apartment a special pillow.” He nods at her.

“Yeah, male Turian's use special pillows for our fringe, and sadly I forgot mines at home.” She smiles and he gets settled in laying on his back. She took this opportunity to lay on his chest marveled at how soft and hard his body is.

Her hands lightly brush his hide, “I could buy you one as a gift.” She whispers and his arms around her pull tightly.

“I would like that,” he whispers. As he was falling asleep he felt her lightly rub his fringe. This made him make a sound that made her giggle.

“Did you just purr?” She asks teasingly.

He laughs nervously eyes closed, “Fringes are sensitive areas. Same for the back of the fringe and waist. Just felt really nice having you touch me there.” He said opening one of his eyes and looking down at her.

“I know of the back of the head, but not the fringe itself. I know that touching it is a sign of disrespect; which I now realized I did just that." She slaps her forehead, "I am sorry I did that to you, I just couldn’t help myself.” She bit her lips and he chuckles.

“If a Turian allows you to touch their fringe, that means It’s a sign of trust, among other things." He holds her tighter and looks at her, "and I trust you, Luna. So don’t be sorry okay?” He said warmly, so warmly it almost made her squeal in happiness.

“Okay.” She replies while pushing the happiness of being with him deep down.

_‘I don’t have feelings for him.’_

Garrus, on the other hand, gave in to his desires and find himself holding her tightly as if to keep her away from something or someone.

_‘Right now you’re mine.’_

***

_She looks around seeing the dead bodies of Humans and Batarians. She shook in fear of what she did._

_‘No not this dream again,' she thought._

_It wasn’t long until she heard his voice and the tears begin to start for her._

_“How…how could you do this!?” She sobs and spins around only to see Garrus looking at her in fear._

_“G…Garrus?” Her throat felt dry and her heart felt like it physically was breaking._

_“Your…you’re a monster…a freak…” Her eyes grow wide at his words and she couldn’t control herself. Couldn’t control her anger and despair._

_“No…no!” He stared at her and yelled again._

_“You’re a Freak! A Monster!” She screams and a beam of red/blue hits him._

Luna gasps awake, shaking with tears falling from her eyes. Turning her head over to the sleeping Turian she continues to shake touching his face. Pulling herself out of his arms, she sits up from the bed and silently cries in her hands making sure not to wake him.

 _‘Control it Luna! Hold it inside! Don’t hurt anyone anymore!’_ She screams at herself.

Standing up she walks over to drawer and puts a shirt on before sitting at the desk with some datapads. Reading into the mission would keep her mind distracted.

Garrus felt a tongue licking his mandible. At first, he thought it was Luna, but notice the texture of the tongue and he knows Luna’s tongue. Opening his eyes he was met with the blue eyes of Archangel. They stared at one another for a moment before Archangel jumped away and into his cat tunnel.

“There you go again scaring someone off with your face.” He turns his head to the voice and saw Luna smiling at him with only a shirt on reading a datapad. Sitting up he blinks away the sleep and stretches a little.

“Haven’t scare you off yet though. So I guess I'm alright. How long was I asleep?” She giggles and puts the datapad down before getting up and crawling on the bed towards him. 

Straddling his lap she pokes his chest, “About six hours.” He leans back noting the open space behind his head that allowed his fringe to not be affected.

“Six?…damn.” 

She tilts her head, “What? Six too many?”

“Not really. Just didn’t think I was that tired.” She giggles again shifting her body feeling his cock resting at her entrance.

“Something is telling me otherwise," she said seductively slowly grinding on him.

He chuckles and grabs her ass squeezing, “Why are you up so early? I thought Humans need eight to ten hours of sleep.” 

Her eyebrows raised, “Ten? Wow. Um…I just couldn’t sleep.” He notices she was looking sadden and he squeezes her ass again making she moan quietly.

“Come on Shepard I can tie you up, tell you what I want you to do, and even have you use a ball gag; but you don’t trust me enough to tell me what’s wrong?” She starts to play with her hair a little looking down. He grabs her chin to make her look at him.

“I had a dream about my ex.” She was too scared to tell him the truth.

_‘I had a dream about you.’_

_‘Oh’_ He thought feeling a bit annoyed.

“Oh,” He says and she bit her lips.

“I broke down in front of him and killed many people that day. It was horrific and I understand why he broke up with me. I just..." she closes her eyes sighing wanting to stop the dark thoughts, "...that nightmare reminded me what I have done and I realized…that could happen to you. I could hurt you…and I don’t want you to hate me…to leave me.” She looks down her fingers drawing circles on his chest.

_“How…how could you do this!?”_ She thought about what he said in her dream wishing it would stop. 

Garrus just stared at her for a moment and chuckles darkly jealously setting in. “I hate that you keep comparing me to him. Honestly, it’s really annoying.” He grumbles.

She looks at him with shock, “I don’t…I mean! Oh God, I am sorry Garrus.” He took her cheek in his hand and her hand lays on top of his.

“I told you already Shepard you can’t scare me away that easily.” She sucks in her breath and her lips tremble as tears began to form from her eyes.

“You…don’t understand. I could really hurt you and a lot worse than the time in the battery. What I did that day…I…” He leans his head against hers wrapping his arms tightly around her waist.

_“Your…you’re a monster…a freak…”_ She knows he would never say that to her, to in her dream he did and it hurts, even if it was just that, a dream. 

“Trust me, Luna. Let me protect you.” She shook her head closing her eyes as tears fell.

“I…I don’t know,” She whispers and he kisses her lips. Wanting to feel him inside of her she grabs his cock and guides it to her entrance. He looks at her to make sure she was okay with this and she kisses him deeply needing his touch to feel secure he won't leave her; that he doesn't hate her. It wasn’t long before he was on top of her their hands are intertwined. He pushes himself deep inside of her and begins a slow steady pace. Panting quietly near her neck from his view he can see his mark.

_‘My mate’_ He thought. 

“Garrus.” She whimpers wrapping her legs around his waist. Everything was moving so slow she can hear her heart beating. Her inner self telling her that she has feelings for him. She continues to fight against it but there was so much passion, so many feelings and it scared her.

_‘No…no…I can’t…I won’t. Not…not again.’_ She begs herself to stop. 

“Trust me.” He whispers and their hands tighten against each other. He lifts his head and looks her in the eyes, she was crying. Not in pain or unhappiness just in the confusion of her own feelings towards him.

_‘I’m scared.’_ She thought. 

Her eyes start turning black in front of Garrus and he increases the pace coming close to his release. He groans as he felt her powers creep inside of him again driving him to go faster. They suddenly cry out exploding in pleasure together.

Garrus lays his body on top of hers with his head on the bed next to her neck. Their hands still intertwined as they both were breathing hard.

“Will you trust me?” He whispers.

“I’ll trust you.” She whispers back.

Luna was staring at herself in the mirror. It’s been an hour since Garrus left and she was feeling confused, happy, and scared. Washing her face with some water she inhaled and exhaled remembering her mother’s teaching.

“Maybe I should get back into meditating.” She said to herself. Leaving her bathroom she starts to watch the fish swim enjoying the nice feeling of relaxation.

“Commander, we have arrived at Tuchanka. Everyone is heading to the shuttle bay for departure.” EDI said.

“Thanks, and the Mako?”

“The Mako is too small to fit your group. Once you have settled I will guide it towards your location for use Commander.”

“You can do that?”

“Yes.” Luna nods.

“Alrighty then.”

When she enters the elevator she presses the button to head down to deck 5 it made a quick stop at deck 3. When the door opens Garrus enters.

“Shepard.” He nods at her and she nods back not able to find her voice. When the door closes the elevator felt like it was going very slow.

She opens her mouth to say something but instantly shuts it back. He was leaning on the wall waiting before smirking a little and bent to her ear level.

“I see you are wearing my collar. I don’t know if you forgot, but I like seeing it on you.” She gasps and turns towards him. Her heart racing.

“Oh yeah?” She replies seductively. He chuckles and stands in front of her, hand against the wall as the other went to grab her ass.

“Yes, shows how much you’re mine, Luna.” She shivers at his voice. In a normal setting, she would just find it attractive, but in this setting, it was getting her hot and bothered.

“Is that so Sir?” She gave a little pout and he couldn’t stop himself from kissing her. Before they could get too far the door to the elevator opens up causing them to quickly pull away from each other.

Walking inside the shuttle bay Luna saw her mother talking to Mordin while Navi was with Kenn and Tali. Garrus made sure to stay a little far away from Luna to make sure it wasn’t too obvious what they were doing.

Luna went over to Navi’s group and smiled.

“I see you’re excited about this. Just so you know I hate this idea.” She said narrowing her eyes at Navi.

Navi rolls her eyes and sticks her tongue out, “Don’t care mom said it was okay.” Luna turns toward the two Qurians and smiles. Kenn nods at Luna before heading to the shuttle preparing to leave and she finds herself looking at Tali.

“Hey, Tali how’s everything? I hope you don’t mind us waiting to take you home.” Tali coughs before smiling under her helmet.

“I hope you don’t mind if I ask you if I may join the Normandy?”

“Wait really? I thought you wanted to go back home?” Luna asks taken aback.

“Yes at first I did, but I realized the benefits of working here. Navi and Kenn help put things in perspective. It’s why I am here to officially ask. I…," She pauses, "I know I was a bit hesitant to come with you.” Tali starts.

Luna put her hand up and smiles, “No need to worry about that. I get why you were scared I would have been as well if that happened to me. I would love for you to join our crew. The information you provided was good Intel, and after my mission, my employer told me to look into it.” 

Tali gasps, “Really? When you do look into it may you bring me along? Learning more about Geth for my people would be a huge benefit.” Navi’s eyes glowed when hearing about Geth.

“Geth? Your next mission involves Geth?!” Navi exciting starts to clap.

Luna rolls her eyes, “Navi would you relax. I need more information, but there is a good chance Geth is going to be involved.” Navi squeals and Luna looks back at Tali.

“I’m sorry you can’t come along now to see how things work around me up close, but I could make sure you join the next mission with me.” 

Tali nods, “Yes, that would be nice.”

"Can you use a gun? I don't mind protecting people in the spur of the moment, but having to protect you while I gather data isn't something I look forward to, sorry," Luna simply states.

"Don't worry I know how to use a gun," Tali said proudly.

“You can use a gun? You’re not like me?” Navi asks sadly and Tali giggles.

“No, I have a shotgun and I know how to use it.”

Luna grins and brings her hand out, “Welcome aboard Tali.” She says and they shook each other’s hands.

After a bit of whining from Navi about not allowed to use weapons and Luna poking her mandibles teasing her; Luna made her way to her mother.

“So I made sure that Wrex will keep you protected while I go investigate what’s going on with Clan Weyrloc. I hope you don’t mind Dr. Mordin.” The Salarian nods in understanding.

“Don’t worry I understand. Would prefer if assistant is alive.” 

Luna nods, “Don’t worry doctor he will be fine I promise.”

“What was Navi whining about this time?” Laena asks crossing her arms.

“Not being allowed to use a shotgun. Come on mom we could at least teach her how to use a pistol or SMG like you can.”

“I guess you are right. She’s old enough to use a gun, but I am not as gun savvy. She is going to need someone who can train her.”

“You know how to use an SMG mom.” Luna said raising her eyebrows.

“Yes I know, doesn’t mean I am an expert and can teach others.”

“I wouldn’t mind teaching her how to use a sniper,” Luna said grinning.

“No! Navi must start small. A pistol or SMG will do, understood?” Laena gave her the famous ‘Mother’ look making Luna bite her lips.

“Okay, okay damn pistol or SMG it is. Promise.”

Once everyone was in the shuttle they made their way down. As they hit Tuchanka’s soil Garrus was slightly shocked at the sight.

“Welcome to Tuchanka as you can see there is a lot to take in. Such as rocks over there and more rocks over there. Then you have a few Krogans, but best of all, and this is extremely important! More rocks!” Navi laughs a little while pointing at different areas.

“Navi stop that.” Laena scolds while Luna was laughing, she then stops upon seeing a Krogan and Asari speaking to one another.

“Oh, Charr I don’t think I like this place for the children to stay.”

“I know it doesn’t look like much, but I can promise you with the new Clan leader Tuchanka will look amazing. He’s the first to want to make this place livable for the future! Think of the tall buildings and the education that awaits this place.” Luna was thinking hard before finally, it clicked.

“Are you from Illium?” The couple turned and looked at her.

“Um…yes? Why?” The Asari asks.

“I was the person who told you to give the Krogan a chance. Looks like it worked out?” Luna grins.

The Asari gasp, “Oh Yes! Now I remember! Thank you so much! Charr and I plan on getting married soon. As for the location of our family that is still up for debate.” She giggles and Charr smiles.

“You can choose where ever we can live. As long as I am with you I will be the happiest Krogan alive.” Luna's heart swelled at that statement and she fought herself from saying aw.

“Oh…Charr I love you so much.”

“And I love you.”

Luna turned away not in disgust but trying to hide from squealing at the romance. Holding her head up high she caught up to the group not noticing the Turian behind her. Garrus watched the whole display and saw Luna's expressions. She was a romantic.

It was clear she enjoyed romance after noticing her reactions to movies like fleet and flotilla. Then there were romance novels in her cabin, and now this. Garrus chuckles from behind her and saw her tense.

“Didn’t think you were a romantic Shepard.” She spun around and punches him in the arm.

“Shush!” When she turned around she felt his hand touch and squeezes her ass and she quietly moans.

“That’s one punch and counting.” He growls in her ear promising.

Wrex looked bored as he sat on his throne talking to the ambassador of another smaller Clan. He missed the old days of shooting and causing problems, but his people are important to him. Having to ‘grow up’ and take control wasn’t so bad it gave him something to do, something to look forward to each day. A future for the Krogan people.

When he saw Luna and her group he jumps off his throne and heads over to them.

“Wrex!”

“Shepard!” He grabs her hand in a handshake before patting her shoulder. 

Zaeed chuckles, “Looks like your age is catching up to you Wrex.” Their hands met in a hard grab as if about to arm wrestling looking at each other in the eye.

“Zaeed, good to see you’re still alive. I know how long you pyjaks live, time is catching up to you.”

“You’re goddamn right, but I still could kick your ass. What’s the score? 5-4?” Wrex laughs before noticing Laena; he then moves towards her he takes her hand in his and smile.

“Hello, Wrex it’s nice to see you again.” She smiles back at him enjoying his hand on hers.

“You're as beautiful as ever Laena. It’s good to see you again.” He says warmly and she laughs while Luna cringes.

“Wrex!” Navi beams at him and he laughs.

“The little pyjak got permission to leave the nest.” She pouts putting her hands on her waist.

“Little pyjak?! Wrex I’m not ten anymore! I’m sixteen! it's Fun-sized!” He pats her head not too hard to hurt her.

“And still a little pyjak.” He laughs loud as she huffs in annoyance and glares at the corner. When he saw Garrus he narrows his eyes and look up him and down. 

Luna smiles stepping in, “This is Garrus Vakarian. He’s helping us with the Melon case.”

Laena shook her head at the name, “Maelon.”

“That’s what I said.” She shrugs and Laena rolls her eyes.

“Garrus huh? The Turian pyjak that won’t leave you alone like a lost varren?”

“Lost varren? Come on you can do better than that.” Luna was about to intervene when Wrex laughs.

“Luna told me you had a stick up your ass. Didn’t think you had a sense of humor.”

“Did she now?” He looks at her giving her a look. Luna knew she’s going to get punished and it turned her on.

“Wrex we need to talk about the Melon situation in private. Do you think we can have some privacy?”

“Yes, but who will be coming?”

“The good doctor, my mother, Garrus and I” Mordin steps into view and nods at Wrex who nods back.

“I see you finally left that damn clinic of yours.”

“Many people of Omega need me. Did not regret time there.”

When they were in a more secluded area of the land Wrex looked at Luna waiting for her to talk.

“Well, as you must know this is important as curing the Genophage is going to be pretty daunting,” Luna starts.

Wrex sat down and shook his head, “I still don’t like that you want me to stop this cure from happening.” He grumbles.

Laena touches his shoulder, “I understand this isn’t what you want. But do you want the cure in Clan Weyrloc's hands? I did promise you I would find a way to help your people, but this isn’t part of the plan.” 

Dr. Mordin nods, “What Dr. Shepard and I have planned is still a work in progress. We have been studying different ways to help Krogan's birth rate.” 

Wrex sighs, “Alright fine, you're right the last thing the Krogan people need is Clan Weyrloc with the Genophage cure. Still doesn’t sit well with me to just have the cure and not do anything with it.”

“There is no evidence the cure is even created.” Garrus pointed out which made Wrex glare at him.

“And if it is?” He growls.

“It isn’t. Vakarian is right. There is no feasible evidence the cure is created Wrex.” Laena said still holding his shoulder.

“Fine. What is it we need to do?”

“We need to prepare. I have to call the Mako to come and insist on this trip. Garrus, Zaeed, and I would be the ones to look into the matter. Once we find Melon we will save him from Clan Weyrloc and bring him to safety.”

“And Clan Weyrloc? It would be nice to finally take them down. Add the survivors to Clan Urdnot, mostly women and children.” Wrex said fixing his armor.

“Just women and children? Don’t you want fighters to join you as well?” Garrus asked and Wrex scoffs.

“The fighters would most likely only want to do just that, fight. I don’t want that in my Clan we need to finally stop the bullshit fighting to the death and work together as all of you pyjaks. Maybe if we show a ‘united front’ the Council would get off their fucking ass and help us rebuild.” Wrex said crossing his arms.

Mordin nods, “Rebuilding Tuchanka would take time and effort but can be done. With help of course.” 

Laena crosses her arms and started to think, “If they are looking for a cure it wouldn’t surprise me if they are experimenting.” 

Luna tenses up, “That…would make….sense.” She whispers.

Laena stares at her daughter, “If you find any evidence of that Luna you need to inform me and Mordin.” Garrus can feel the tension between the two, knowing of what they been through Garrus bends to Luna’s ear whispering.

“If you want me to go alone with Zaeed that’s fine. I’ll keep you informed.” 

She shook her head, “I’ve been on hard missions before we even met Vakarian. I can handle this.” She said coldly and Garrus was a little taken aback but didn’t say anything else.

“Would they really experiment? If so they would need Krogan, right?” Wrex questions in anger.

“Where there’s a will there’s a way Wrex. There will always be people willing to go to the extreme for the data they want.” As Laena said this Garrus notice her eyes were far away as if remembering the past, and he understood what she means.

As they prepared for the mission Luna was waiting for the Mako.

She was on edge.

She remembers going on missions saving slaves from slavers. Gaining information from failed experiments going haywire. But she never saw it firsthand not after what happened to her as a child.

There is a good chance she would go into that facility and see Krogans being actively experimented on everywhere just like the Humans on the slave ship she was on for years; and it scares her. The thought almost made her throw up.

“Hey.” She heard and turned around to see Garrus looking at her.

She smiles, “Hey.” They turn back to the scenery staring at the emptiness of Tuchanka, a wasteland. So much land that could be rebuilt on if given the time and effort. A bark took Luna out her thoughts, and she looked down to see a varren at Garrus' feet. 

He chuckles, “Before you freak out this is Urz, and he won’t stop following me after I gave him some pyjak meat.” 

She laughs, “And how did you get pyjak meat?”

“….Calibrating their gun…” he looks away sheepishly chuckling.

Luna burst out laughing, “Garrus!” She shouts in glee.

“What? Calibrating guns is a hobby! I see no problem here. ” He said shrugging.

“More like a habit!” She states still laughing.

“Look, they were having troubles with pyjaks getting into their food pile and I decided to be the hero and save the day. By blowing up some pyjaks. Went back to the store owner, told him how much of a hero I am. He said ‘Oh spirits, Garrus thank you so much I don’t know what we would have done without you’” He says in a high pitch voice; Luna couldn’t take it anymore and starts wheezing.

“I can’t…breathe help.” Garrus was worried but laughed because she was laughing.

“Are you okay!?” Tears were falling from her eyes. Finally after a lot of laughing they calm down.

“Is that how you met Urz?” She points to the Varren.

“Oh yeah, the varren was well trained. He looked hungry and so I fed him.”

“Have you never been taught if you feed a stray they will stay?” She asks nonchalantly. 

He looks at her confused, “Uh…no? Is that a Human thing?” She shook her head and bent down to Urz level. 

Giggling, she pets his head and he loves it, “Who’s a good boy? You’re a good boy!” He barks and rolls on his back making her rub his stomach.

“Hah, you like him.” He said as he too bends down to scratch Urz’s head.

“Shut up, you like him too.”

Once inside the Mako Garrus was driving, much to Luna’s protest. Urz head was on her lap as she lightly pet him and Zaeed had his eyes close while crossing his arms.

“So what’s the plan, Shepard?” Garrus starts.

“Well I wo-” Her Omni-tool chimed.

 _“Hey, Lulu!”_ It was Navi.

“Navi what do you want?”

 _“There is a reason why I wanted to be here and I never got to tell you!”_ Luna waited for her to continue when she didn’t she rolls her eyes.

“Okay?”

_“Right sorry, mom was talking. I left you something in the Mako! EDI will show you where it is.”_

“Commander,” EDI said and a compartment opens up; Luna stares at the object and gasps.

“Navi is this my sword? Why the hell do you have it?! I’ve been looking for it all year!” She heard a nervous giggle.

 _“I’m sorry Lulu I wanted it to be a surprise and told mommy to get it from you. I upgraded it! Instead of using it only for melee, you can use it from far away! You can now activate an ability by slashing the air and causing an electric shockwave with it! I call the ability ‘Electric Slash’”_ Luna stares at the sword and smiles.

“Thanks, Navi. I will make sure to tell you how it goes.” She heard a squeal.

_“YES!”_

When she was done talking to Navi she heard Garrus chuckling.

“Bringing a sword to a gunfight? Really?” 

Luna smirks and went back to rubbing Urz’s head, “Just so you know. I haven’t had my baby in a full year, which means you haven’t met her yet." She grins, " All those times in each other’s face could have easily been solved with her instead of the Omni-blade I needed to substitute with.” 

He chuckles, “Oh yeah? Who taught you?” 

She rolls her eyes, “Pftt…no one at least not in the beginning. Living on Omega allows you to gain a lot of skills to fend for yourself. There was also a program in the Alliance that helped hone my skills. Remember when I told you about that friend of mine that died? I wanted revenge, and even when I got it. Didn’t change a damn thing she still was dead, but at least I have this sword to remember her by.” Garrus didn’t say a word but thought back to his own revenge.

“What happened?”

“I was worried about her when she went missing. She was this beautiful Asari but was so fucking conceited. Kasumi and I kept telling her to stop acting as if nothing can harm her. She was such a bitch and saw herself as above everyone just because she was an Asari. We all still loved the shit out of her though."

Garrus chuckles, "Love and hate relationships huh? How she got the sword?" He asks. 

Luna thought for a moment, "She told me about getting this sword and giving it to her girlfriend; who was a collector. We were all thieves and didn’t mind going for it. Once we stole it she was in love with it and decided to keep it for herself. When we would get into fights she would use it, and she was impressive." She said in awe.

Zaeed grunts, "Impressive huh?" He snorts in disbelief.

She glares at him, "Yes! Impressive! Left and right mercs drop dead each time she would use it; and her skills kept increasing. I was jealous of her and at the same time admired her; there were moments I just wanted to be her. Then she got betrayed by her girlfriend, who wanted to join the ‘Eclipse sisters’ on Illium. Fucking hate Illium." She growls.

Garrus looks at her for a moment, "Betrayed...I know what's it like to be betrayed." He whispers and stares at the road ahead of them.

She growls, "I was seventeen at the time and had the credits to go to Illium. So I discreetly packed my shit and made my way over there. Using the skills from my mentor I located the girlfriend. When I got to where she was; I heard her laughing with her friends talking about how it was 'such an easy kill' and how she finally 'got the sword that she wanted'. I lost control, grabbed the sword, and stabbed her.” Luna sighs.

Zaeed sucked his teeth and shook his head, “Hate fucking betrayers. Good on you for killing that goddamn bitch.” Garrus clutches his mouth trying hard not to think of his own betrayal.

_‘Sindonis’_

“It was hard to get away and I’m pretty sure I would have died if it wasn’t for my mentor who had to save me once he learned what happened. I took the sword and used it to honor her. I was pretty devastated when I couldn’t find it, but my ship isn’t going to pay for itself. The show must go on and I had to go on missions without it, but now that I have it back.” She grins as they finally reached their destination.

“Now that I have it back, I will take point. Zaeed use your shotgun and gun these sonsofbitches down where ever you can.” Zaeed chuckles getting ready to throw his inferno grenade at a Vorcha.

“Urz get ready,” Garrus commanded, and Urz barks. Getting his Viper out he looks at her.

“Let me guess, I watch your six?” He asks staring at her ass. She uses her tactical cloak and he could see her using his visor ready to run across the field sword in hand; she shakes her ass a little at him, teasing.

“I trust you to always watch my six, **honey**.”


	14. Experiment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Searching for Maelon does not leave a good impression

Luna was having a blast moving so fluidly in the field. Using her tactical cloak to appear behind an enemy she slashes at them before they could respond. Looking to the right she saw a Krogan charging at her, knowing how much health they have because of her visor she uses her electric slash towards him. The electric shockwave blew him back causing him to crash into a raging Vorcha.

The ability was pretty impressive and she told herself to get something amazing for Navi. While admiring her damage a shot flew past her and she silently panicked. Looking towards where the shot came from she saw Garrus with his sniper looking through the lens. Pulling away from the scope he smirks at her.

“Gotcha six!” He yells out and she grins finally realizing the dead Vorcha on the ground. Suddenly Urz jumps and attacks a Varren who was aiming to bit Garrus. Garrus spun around and watches as Urz takes down the Varren. With a chuckle, he pets Urz's head calling him a good boy while, Luna cheers.

Ahead of them, Zaeed uses a concussive shot on a Krogan before throwing an inferno grenade at him. The Krogan starts screaming in pain rolling around as the fire engulfs him. Hearing a snarl heading his way Zaeed turns using his shotgun to pop a Varren in the head.

Luna stops cheering when she hears a weird noise. Instantly, she turns around and without hesitation uses another electric shock at the creature killing it easily, but then it explodes causing her to fly back in pain; she screams. Seeing this Garrus rushes over to her while Urz took down another Varren and shouts out orders.

“Zaeed watch our backs,” Zaeed grunted and continued to shoot at the remaining enemies.

Luna was groaning in pain as her suit felt like fire, “Shit! SHIT! What the fuck is that thing!?” She screams as the liquid starts to feel like acid.

Zaeed over the gunfire answered, “A Kilxen native to Tuchanka! They explode after you kill them, while in melee range they will use their fire breath! So you were lucky to kill that thing before it got you!” He laughs.

“Lucky?! Fuck! FUCK!” She screams louder still burning and Garrus was wondering what to do.

Zaeed grins, “Would you relax, the fire breath would have been worst.” When the burning subsides she groans while standing up.

Garrus touches her shoulder, “You okay?” He asks concerned.

She sighs and nods at him smiling, “Yeah…sorry big guy got overzealous with my sword.”

He chuckles, “Don’t worry just use Vixen from now on.”

Taking out her sniper rifle she changes her approach to watching Zaeed’s back as he took point. Garrus switches to his assault rifle and Luna is impressed by how effective he was with it when it wasn’t shooting at her.

“You use assault rifles really well! You beat me at something **honey**. How does that feel?” She giggles as he rolls his eyes.

“It feels,” he shot at another Kilxen, “like I’m going to punish you when we're back on the Normandy.”

She gasps, “What did I do?!” She asks giving him a teasing look.

“Punishment for that backhanded compliment.” He throws a grenade and it blows up two more Kilxen, "But thanks, after this mission I'll teach you how to hold my assault rifle," He winks and Luna laughs aiming Vixen before taking a shot instantly killing a Varren eating a corpse. Luckily with all the shots, Zaeed didn’t hear the banter between the two.

After the fighting, they made it to a door that leads to an old hospital. Luna bit her lips worried, hospitals were terrifying. She sucked in her breath and did a small mantra making sure to calm herself before entering.

“Would you look at this,” Zaeed said picking something up from one of the broken tomkah. Garrus walked over, looking at the tomkah itself.

“An actual tomkah huh? Much bigger than the Mako by far. Its purpose is clear, carry large Krogan from one area to another. Imagine calibrating this thing.” He whispers in awe before turning away from the tomkah towards what Zaeed was staring at and his eyebrow plates raise.

Luna shook her head, “Of course you would talk about calibrating. Zaeed what is that?” She askes looking towards the old man.

“It’s the combustion manifold this Krogan mechanic was talking about. Navi told me to look out for one.”

Luna chuckles, “Did she know you would find one?”

“Nah, just said to see if I do. If not she would try to find a way to help the Krogan out.” Luna nods before pointing at the hospital door.

“Let’s go, maybe once Wrex takes over from Clan Weyrloc they could fix this place up?”

Garrus shrugs, “That’s going to take years, decades even, but it’s better than sitting around doing nothing.” Once the door opens, Luna and Garrus cringe their sense much higher than an ordinary human such as Zaeed making the smell horrid, but even he.

“What. The. Fuck!” Luna yells out and Urz whimpers.

Zaeed groans, “The smell is fucking horrible.” He curses. Luna was having flashbacks and Garrus was trying his hardest to not throw up. It was worse than the plague on Omega.

It wasn't long before Luna suddenly starts to panic dropping to the ground holding her head. She could hear the screams and cries. The begging and dying. This place was reminding her of what happened during her slave days and she wasn’t prepared for it.

_“PLEASE STOP!”_

_“No more please!”_

_“Help!”_

_“I’m sorry! I’m Sorry”_

_“Please master I beg you no more!”_

_“I…I would do anything….”_

_“Please.”_

So many voices of the Humans who were tortured for fun by the Batarians were drowning her in despair, she could feel her powers overtaking her body. Garrus saw her start to glow and knew this could get ugly. Fighting fought through the smell he took her in his arms.

“Listen to me, Luna. You’re not there anymore. You’re with me, trust my voice okay?” He whispers to her softly trying to pull her out. Hearing him made her take a deep breath and nod. Her body stops glowing after a while and she opens her eyes meeting his; she gave a small smile.

“Thank you.”

“Of course.” After some time has passed to get used to the putrid smell they walk inside the hospital. Urz sadly was taking much longer, kept whimpering and Garrus pats his head trying to calm the Varren. Luna groans internally as the hospital was just getting worst as they kept walking. Walking down the stairs they saw something further down.

“A bloody mess this is,” Zaeed grunted looking over a pile of burnt bodies.

“Those are not Krogans…..” Luna studied them from afar and gasps.

“Human…” Garrus whispers seeing the bodies. Walking over to them he was disgusted to see the men and women in the pile. When he saw a child he growls. Sensing his master anger Urz tenses up.

“A goddamn kid…what the fuck is this place?” Zaeed looks on in disgust.

“We need to find Maelon now,” Luna said sternly. As they begin to explore Luna made sure to use her Omni-tool to record everything that is happening here.

“'Where there’s a will there’s a way'. That’s what your mother said. I was hoping it didn’t come to this. I knew there is a high chance of this, but…spirits…” Garrus spoke in disbelief, the image of this place burning into him.

“It makes sense. I mean wasn’t the Genophage created like this?” Zaeed asks and Luna shook her head.

“No. Mordin said something like this never happened and I am intended to believe him." She felt rage build up as they pass by a few dead Krogan, "There are better ways to create a fucking cure! No one needs to…fuck! Why does it always come to experimenting with people!?” Luna growls clutching her fist.

It wasn’t long until they heard someone ordering people around. Getting into a position they peek around the corner seeing none other than Garm. Garrus' world stops for a moment as he taught about his crew, his people, his friends. Taking long deep breaths he focused on holding in his anger while Luna watches their every move.

“I want more people protecting this place! If I hear again about whoever is infiltrating this hospital I’ll kill every single one of you idiots! Go deal with them now!” He shouts gripping the railing hard.

Garrus looks at Luna begging her to attack and she shook her head. He looks back seeing Garm walking away and he lost it. Growling he rushes out thinking of his dead team just made him see red.

“NO!” Luna screams, but Garrus didn’t hear seeing this Krogan made his blood boil. Garm glares at the intruder and growls.

“Get them!”

_‘You can’t let him get away!’_

_‘He killed us!’_

_‘Avenge us!’_

_‘GARRUS!’_

“GARRUS!” Luna screams, but Garrus was already running using his pistol to shoot a Vorcha in the mouth and throwing a proximity mine at Garm causing him to run away from the explosion.

Luna uses another electric slash at a charging Krogan who was going for Garrus. Urz tries to keep up with him but was shot by a Vorcha. With a scream of no, Luna rushes over to the Varren and uses medi-gel on him while cooing him softly to stop him from whimpering.

Zaeed on the other hand uses concussive shots on a few enemies before throwing an inferno grenade and switching his ammo to armor pen. He shotgun’s multiple Vorcha and kicked a Varren, before shooting a Krogan in the face.

Garrus finally got to Garm who used his shotgun to shoot at him. Garrus dunks undercover before shooting at Garm with his assault rifle.

_‘KILL HIM!’_

_‘KILL HIM!’_

_‘KILL HIM!’_

His mind was going crazy as all he could see was red so much fucking red. The image of his fallen team shattered on the floor of their base. Seeing Jin coughing up blood as his life slips away.

_‘Please boss…please m…ake…sure…Na…lah…”_

It wasn’t long before Garrus was flung back against the wall coughing and spitting up blood. Garm rushes him and Garrus pulls out of his thoughts fast enough to catch the Krogan with his hands. Adrelanie starts to pump through his veins and his talons burst through his gloves digging deep into Garm who in turn growls.

“Who are you!? Fucking Turian! This cure will happen, and once it does I am going to fucking burn Palaven to the ground!” Garrus glares showing his teeth at the Krogan ready to use his mouth to kill him no longer in control of his emotions as his primal urges to hunt his prey took control.

“You will DIE! For what you have DONE!” Garrus yells using all of his strength to hold the Krogan in place. Garm glares growling.

“I’ve done many things you fucking Turian.”

“They DIED because of YOU!” Garm suddenly realizes and began to laugh.

“Archangel? HAHA ARCHANGEL! So you did live. How does it feel…knowing they are dead? Knowing it was all your fault.” Luna finishes off the last Vorcha with a slash of her sword before turning towards Garrus.

“Garrus!”

Hearing her Garm looks at her grinning darkly noticing her scent and mark.

“The other Turian begged for me to not hurt his Asari whore. I never got that chance, but this time. This time I have my chance, and the best part it’s yours.” Garm using his Krogan strength pushing Garrus down there was a cracking sound as Garrus’ armor was starting to break. Garm laughs and leans down for only Garrus to hear.

“I’ll rape that tight hole of a Human and she’ll be my slave. I’ll show her what a real cock is.” A burst of adrenaline coursed through his veins; his mouth grows open and he bit into the Krogan’s neck, hard. This causes Garm to yell out and headbutt Garrus making him drop to the ground. 

Garm looks at the Turian and growls holding his wound. With his Krogan rage, he picks up a boulder and throws it at Garrus. Luna gasps about to use her biotics to stop the rock. Garm notices her glowing and glares while using shockwave towards her causing her to fly into a wall. While that was happening Zaeed made sure to shoot the rock before it hits Garrus and this pisses Garm off.

"What? Are you mad goddamn idiot?" Zaeed taunts before feeling himself be lifted in the air and flung across the room.

"Zaeed!" Luna yells out clutching her side. Garrus groans while looking up at Garm walking slowly towards Luna who begins to use her powers again to get him away from her, but he was stronger. Garm laughs as she uses her own shockwave, but he barely moved an inch. She knew she needs to use more of her powers, but she couldn't. She didn't have control over them. Hoping she could feel enough hate and fear to explode on this Krogan she waits, but waiting was detrimental as he picks her up by the neck.

Garrus coughs and looks sorry at Luna for acting with his emotions. His body felt tired and in pain. Garm drags her by the neck making sure Garrus watches a sick and twisted grin on his face.

"What too scared to fight me so you have to go after her?" Garrus spat standing up taking in a breath, "Here I thought Krogans like to fight and kill. Not act like a coward and rape women." He growls. Garm looks at him with anger and throws Luna into a wall causing her to gasps out. Watching Garm do that pissed Garrus off as he calmed himself to focus. Krogan's might be stronger than Turians, but they don't have training like a Turian. 

Garm charges at Garrus not even thinking of a gun and Garrus moves out of the way before using his foot to kick him in the back. With a growl, Garm uses warp and Garrus dodges while using an overload to take out his barrier. The Krogan tries again at charging at Garrus who dodges and uses his arms to punch him in the gut making Garm fall on his ass. 

Luna gasps and looks up staring at the fight between the two. She groans quietly as she slowly maneuvers to her sword. Gasping at a rock almost hitting her she looks over to see Garm is even more pissed but was clearly losing his energy. Luna was impressed by Garrus holding his own against the Krogan. It's as if he fought against him before and knew his weakness. When Garrus punches Garm in the face a few times causing the Krogan to fall back Luna stares at his arms, his legs, his body. She felt her face heat up.

 _"What am I a damn fangirl?"_ She thought as she watches him use some footwork to get the upper hand on the Krogan. _"Yes, I am a fangirl for Garrus."_ She admitted before her eyes went wide and she moves out the way of Garrus shoving Garms face into the wall.

Garm was tired and Garrus could tell. This wasn't the first time fighting the Krogan and he knew he couldn't let up. Garm was a freak of nature able to regen much faster than other Krogans. With as much force as possible Garrus took Garms head again and smashes it against the wall. Even if he was a freak of nature doesn't mean he isn't beatable. Garrus smashes again.

_“Be…being a s...slave changed me so much.”_

Anger starts to fill him again as he kept smashing the Krogan's head into the wall over and over again never letting up. Garm was trying to fight him off but to no avail, a lot of his energy was spent fighting the Turian fucker. Garm tries to use his biotics, which almost worked, but Garrus was full of adrenaline his anger now taking completely over.

_“For you anything.”_

He can hear her singing again in his head. It was soft full of emotions. Her singing was beautiful and this Krogan will not take it away from him. Garrus then grabs Garm's shoulders and throws him on the ground. The Krogan was groaning in pain his body quickly trying to regen him back.

_“I’ll trust you.”_

Garrus stood there remembering her words and he looks over to Luna. Luna stares at him wide-eyed not knowing what to say or do, maybe ask if he was okay? She didn't have to think too long before she saw Garrus walk towards her. Her heart was starting to beat quickly under this pressure, not in fear, but nervousness as if her crush was walking towards her.

He stops in front of her and their eyes met. Reaching down he touches her cheek as his mandibles twitch in happiness as he feels her. She closes her eyes enjoying his touch until he turns around ready to defend himself from the raging Krogan who pins him against the wall.

"Garrus!" Luna gasps.

"You think you can come here Archangel and act like some fucking badass?!" Garm screams and he chokes Garrus who growls with blue blood falling from his mouth. As Garm chokes Garrus Luna finally gathers some strength to stand up and glare at the Krogan. Picking up her sword she forces her biotic into the sword and slashes behind him ripping through his armor and exposing his body.

Garm screams in pain and drops Garrus. Turning to her he uses his biotics again and she flew once more into the wall spitting up blood. Angry at the Human he charges at her; Luna tries to get up but was drops to the ground her energy spent. Before he would reach her a shot was heard, Garrus was using his pistol to shoot at the exposed Krogan. Each shot he took he did it for his team, each shot he took he did it for him, each shot he took he did it for Luna. 

The Krogan falls to the ground limp presumingly dead but Garrus didn’t care. He didn't care if this was 'overkill' he wants him dead! He didn't stop shooting; he wanted to make sure this garbage and a waste of breath was dead. With his ammo spent Garrus angrily picks up Luna's sword and begins to stab, sometimes slash, into him relentlessly. It wasn’t until Luna came into view that Garrus looks at her instead of the dead Krogan on the ground. She was still laying there on her stomach but was looking at him not in fear only sadness.

“Garrus.” She whispers and he stares at her anger dissolving in his eyes. She reaches out for him and he walks slowly towards her before dropping by her side. Taking her in his arms he hugs her tightly scared to let go.

_‘Warm’_

“It's over Garrus.” She whispers hugging him back; he was trying to even out his breathing to find a sense of calmness. 

“Getting too goddamn old for this shit, Shepard.” Luna looks up to Zaeed who was helping Urz up the stairs as they made their way to them.

“Luna…” Garrus said quietly eyes close as he starts to breathe in her scent.

 _'My mate',_ he thought.

“Are you okay? Do we need to tur-” He looks at her and shook his head.

“No, I'm fine just need medi-gel...are you okay?" He asks as she continues to straddle him.

A smile appears on her face, "I am going to be in so much pain, but with medi-gel, I can keep going. I did use my biotics which mean...needle time." She shivers.

Garrus nods. "I'm sorry I lost control, but I had to do it, Luna. They needed to have their justice, he shouldn't be allowed to live after what's he done." He growls before quietly looking over the dead Krogan, "I’ll do it again if given the chance.” He whispers and Luna looks at him. Taking his head in her hands she makes him look at her.

“Garrus I know you wanted him dead, but you could have been killed!” She said angrily and he gave her a look. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before playing with her curly hair as if trying to tame the curly mess. Garrus is starting to notice she does this a lot when stressed.

“I’m sorry,” He looks down in shame but was still satisfied with his kill.

“We should get going,” Zaeed said breaking the silence. Urz slowly made his way over to Garrus and he gave the Varren a sad look.

“I’m sorry to you to Urz. I lost control of myself.” Luna wraps her arms around him tightly around his neck.

“Please don’t do that again…you could have been killed.” She whimpers making sure to not cry.

He inhales deeply and held her, “I know and I’m sorry. Please forgive me.” He begs and she pulls back with a sad expression then begins laughing playfully glaring at him.

“I forgive you. God, you make me so emotional I hate you.”

He chuckles and touches her cheek, “You have no idea how emotional you make me, Luna." He said before places his head on hers for a brief moment not caring if Zaeed saw, "I’ll do anything just for you.” He whispers as low as possible and she heard. This causes her to feel confused while her heart beats wildly as this statement.

“What do yo-?”

“We need to…rest for a bit. Just for a moment, and you need to use your meds” She frowns as he cuts her off but nods and looks at Zaeed.

“After we finish resting we’ll head out. It won’t take long.”

After giving Garrus and herself some medi-gel, including her shot to stabilize her powers with the help of Garrus, she got up and calls her mother using her Omni-tool.

_“Luna, is everything alright?”_

“Yes, there were some problems, but it’s dealt with. Turns out you are correct, and it’s not just Krogans they are experimenting on. Humans mom….women, men….children.” She said trying not to freak out again. Laena sighs and shook her head looking to the side.

_“Yeah…Humans as well….alright. Luna, Mordin, and I are going to head over there.”_

“What no! It’s pretty dangerous. We have it under control, I will make sure Melon is safe.”

 _“It’s MAE- you know what forget it. Luna, we are coming there rather you like it or not. It’s not about Maelon anymore, we need to understand precisely what is going on. You can keep going no need to wait for us. And don’t worry, Mordin and I are perfectly capable of protecting ourselves.”_ Luna sighs ready to pull her hair out before nodding.

“Fine, I won't argue anymore. But mom please note that the smell here is…horrific. Think back to the Batarian ship smell.” Her mother’s expression hardens before nodding.

 _“Thank you for the warning, Laena out.”_ Once the call was over Luna saw Garrus standing up dusting himself off.

He looks at her and his mandibles twitch, “Hey.” He said.

She smiles, “Hey. Feeling better?” She asks

He looks at the dead Krogan on the ground and shot his head, twice. Taking a deep breath he shot him one more time before nodding to Luna.

“Now I am.” He said emotionless.

Continuing their journey through the hospital they made it to a large area that seems to go down forever. Luna spots a few Krogans and Vorchas patrolling the area.

“Have you heard anything from Garm?”

“No.”

“Maybe we should go check to see what happened to him?”

“And get chewed out for leaving the post? No, just keep patrolling.”

Luna nods to Garrus and Zaeed before using her tactical cloak. Running across the platform she made her way over to a Vorcha and slashes at him. The rest of the pack starts to panic and searched around to see where the attack is coming from. Luna instead kept hidden and slashes at their backline, while Garrus and Zaeed took care of the Krogans. Urz took down a few Varrens that came too close.

Once the fighting was over they begin their descent into the hospital.

“If Krogans didn’t nuke themselves they could have been great,” Luna said looking around at the architect.

“Great? That’s some confidence you have there Shepard.” Garrus remarked chuckling.

She shrugs, “If the Krogan race were more like Wrex things would be different.” She said sounded optimistic; usually, she's not like this, but maybe? Navi is rubbing off on her.

Zaeed rolls his eyes and scoffs, “That’s a load of shit. Wrex only became who he is after you influence him to lead. After Elysium, I saw the change in him." He pauses, "There was also Laena.” He whispers. Ignoring what he said about Laena, Luna looks at the old man in shock after hearing how she influence Wrex.

“What? Me? But he’s like centuries old! With full combat experience. He would know how to lead. Zaeed you’re talking out of your ass.” She laughs.

“Age doesn’t mean shit, Shepard. Look at me! I’m close to seventy years old full of combat experience and I can’t lead worth a shit! The life Wrex lived before he met you was a life where he only saw one thing when it comes to his people, and it was viewing them as goddamn savages. Wrex didn’t know how to goddamn lead worth a shit. All he knew was how to pick up a gun and shoot. No matter how many centuries old he is, if you aren’t taught how to lead, no way in hell you could just lead. Trust me I know.” He said lazily. Luna grew tight-lipped not knowing what to say.

“Were you a leader before Zaeed?” Garrus asks and as Luna continues to ponder.

Zaeed shrugs, “Leader? Pftt. I’m no goddamn leader. You want a goddamn leader look at Shepard. When I go on missions I look out for myself, I’m usually the only one left alive. That sounds like a goddamn leader to you?”

“No, but after meeting you it sounds like Shepard has changed you. A few hours ago you could have left us to die after Shepard was attacked by that Kilxen. You could have abandoned us after the fight with Garm, hell you saved my ass from getting killed by a rock. You also didn't have to join the mission at all. You trust Shepard and value her as a friend.” Garrus smirks at his great detective work.

Luna grins, "So I didn't change just Wrex? I changed you?! I knew you changed, but didn't know it was because of me!" Luna excitedly said.

Zaeed laughs loudly, “Changed me!? Trust Shepard?! No, I don’t think so. I still prefer to work alone and trust no one but myself."

Luna rolls her eyes, "Bullshit," she spat crossing her arms.

Zaeed glares, "I was one of the creators of the Blue Suns and they all goddamn betrayed me. Mercs are mercs and if you give them enough money they would betray you, but when you value someone as a friend and they betray you. No, I don’t trust anyone, but myself.” He glares, “Vengeance is all I have left not trust, and I plan on blowing their face clean off their head. Shepard is only a resource I need to achieve this goal, not a friend.” He said darkly, Luna bit back her anger at that statement.

“You are right, Shepard has a network of information. All you needed to do was ask her for the information and go at it alone, but you didn’t. Instead, you are here working with her, which means you trust her. You might not be a leader, but you sure are changing your ways. Who knows maybe you’ll be like Wrex and become a formable leader one day.” Garrus said as Zaeed stops walking and narrow his eyes at him.

“Heh, maybe you’re goddamn right and I changed. Or maybe I just want Vido dead, and the best way to have that is by using Shepard.” She wanted to throw this old man now.

“If so then after you get what you want, you’ll disappear. Never to contact her again.” Their faces got close to each other and Luna was getting worried.

“Is that a bet Vakarian?”

Garrus chuckles, “Yes,” his mandibles twitch with excitement.

“Just know Wrex has bet me multiple times and I’ve always won.” Zaeed grins at the Turian while crossing his arms.

“Just know I’m not Wrex.” Garrus pointed out.

“Just know you are full of shit Zaeed, I know you trust me and wish to be apart of my crew. I know this because I changed as well. I was so used to working alone I didn't know how much fun it was to be around people on a mission." She laughs looking at the two, "Hell working alone sounds boring now," She grins.

Zaeed grumbles and sighs annoyed by these two. He starts to think about how it was working alone and how things got so...quiet at times. Leaving him in an empty spacecraft, alone with no one to talk. How depressing it was to only hear the thoughts of the dead until he met Luna. Although their meetings never last over a month, it was nice to talk with someone. He starts to remember his life from before; his girl and his daughter. Maybe he did change?

Coming out of his thoughts Zaeed watches at Garrus teases Luna who rolls her eyes with a grin. They didn't feel like mercs from his past the ones who would betray him for a pay increase, the ones he needed to outsmart to save his life. The ones he needed to betray to survive. Zaeed gave a small smile, couldn't help but be a little happy with having...companions again.

"I love working you guys!” Luna says happily.

Garrus looks at her, “What happened on Elysium? You must have done something to inspire Wrex to be a leader and Angry old man here to finally give people a chance.” Garrus jokes as Zaeed tolled his eyes trying to contain his laughter. Luna thought for a moment and nodded.

“We were having a small vacation while the ship gets repaired. but then the colony got attacked by all sorts of assholes. Pirates, slavers, and of course Batarians. It was Mindoir all over again and it pissed me off. I learned a lot since…my discharge from the Alliance. I messed up, but I didn’t let it consume me. I might have been born into leaders, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t have to learn leadership. If anything this was my real test on being a leader and it worked. I was able to help rally the colonists against the attack. Wrex and Zaeed were there with me fighting, and it was glorious! There was a point I was alone having to fend off the assholes and seal the breach.”

“She became a goddamn superstar overnight. They call her the 'Black Widow' because of her goddamn sniper.”

Luna laughs, “They didn’t know who I was, so they had to improvise. Before the Alliance came into the picture to see what happened, we left.” She simple said shrugging her shoulders and Garrus was impressed.

“Black Widow huh?” She rolls her eyes.

“Archangel huh?” He chuckles.

It wasn’t long before they made it to the bottom. Turning left they continued their way to a door when Luna stopped and turn behind them, seeing a living Krogan sitting there.

“Hey, are you an Urdnot scout?” The Krogan looks up shaking.

“Yes…” Luna could tell they did something to him.

“What happened?”

“They experimented, they need me, and they need us. We’re important. They took Unya. Wanted to save her. But they need me.”

Luna shook her head, “They don’t need you. And they don’t need to experiment on you.” Anger was fueling her veins as she thought back to the Batarian ship. Hot. Pain.

_‘Control yourself, Luna. Hold it in!’_

“It’s for the cure. It’s for my people. It’s my fault I was caught. Not big enough, not strong enough. Useless. At least I could help my people if I stay here. Help them with curing the Genophage.” He started to recede into himself and Luna thought quickly on her feet.

“What is this?! A Krogan feeling sorry for himself! I thought your race is strong!”

“I…we this cure.”

“Do you want Clan Weyrloc to take over Tuchanka? Do you only want them in power? I thought you were loyal to Urdnot Wrex.”

“What…no. They said they would help Clan Urdnot! The clan leader would be proud of me!”

“Oh, I see what’s going on. Your pride is hurt you got a bruised ego! Are you even Krogan?” She laughs mockingly.

“What? Of course, I am Krogan! It’s why I am here! Don’t you understand Human! I need to be here! I need to help with curing the Genophage!” He shouts.

“No, you’re no Korgan. A real Krogan would get the fuck back up and fight! Krogans are meant to be strong!” She glares at him growling now.

“I did get back up! I got back up and each time they would knock me back down! Every time over and over!” Flashes of the Batarian ship made Luna was to scream, but she held it in and looked him in the eyes.

“You’re weak! A weak little Pyjak! Just going to sit there and eat shit little Pyjak!?” Garrus was impressed by this small Human yelling at this bigger Krogan. He wasn’t as big as other Krogans, but he was bigger than her.

“I’m not weak! I’m not a Pyjak! No one calls me weak! Nobody keeps me down!” He yells standing up to her and Luna stood her ground never flinching.

“Then what are you!?” She yells.

“I am Krogan!” He shouts.

“Then get your ass back to Urdnot camp and tell Wrex what the fuck is going on here! Now!”

He runs out.

“I. AM. KROGAN!”

Once he was gone Luna stood there for a moment letting her adrenaline go down. Zaeed was leaning on the wall a smirk on his lips and Garrus was once again impressed.

“I see what you mean Zaeed. There's no pep talk like a military pep talk.” She turns and looks at them.

“What does what mean?” She questions and Zaeed chuckles before walking away. Garrus on the other hand checked to see if he was looking. Grabbing her chin he kisses her hard on the lips which made her gasp and quietly moan. She whimpers as he squeezes her ass.

“Do you know how sexy you are right now, Luna?” He said with a deep voice making her swoon at the sound. Shaking her head back to reality she rolls her eyes and walks ahead of him giving him a small shake of her ass.

Everything was fun and games until they open up a door and was met with the image and smell of the new area. There were more bodies, blood, doctor instruments around, and it was all fresh. Luna suddenly remembers where she was.

“This…it looks like someone was in a hurry to get the hell out and hide the evidence.” She whispers trying to keep sane, Garrus touches her lower back in comfort and she smiles at him in thanks. Seeing a console she walks over to it and starts typing.

“How long will the information take to collect?” Garrus asks walking around the room.

“Not long, and with EDI it’s even faster." She pulls away from the console to let EDI run scans on it, "Can you look around for me and tell me if there are any other consoles?” She asks taking another look around the place.

“There is one over here,” Zaeed calls out staring at the body on the bed. The body was of a Krogan, but smaller.

“How old?” Garrus asks; Luna walks over and starts typing at the console.

“Seventy-four. She’s a child.” Luna whispers sadly.

Garrus shook his head and sighs, “It just keeps getting worse here.” He rubs his nose knowing the smell is going to stay there for a while.

“Commander, while gathering the information from the consoles I have found a link between these and the computer in the other room.” EDI states.

“Other room?” She turns her head to a door and walks inside. There the console in question was doing something, but what? Wait.

_‘Shit it’s deleting the information!’_

Quickly she starts typing collecting as much data as possible from the wipe.

“They were in such a rush they couldn’t wait for the deletion. Damn it! How could they fucking do this!? EDI see if you could find Maleon! We might be too late.” She angrily said.

As Luna continues to collect Maelon’s data Garrus was looking around.

The smell was starting to get stronger the closer he got to a door in the area. As he kept walking towards the door he found it harder to stop himself from actually throwing up. Once in front of the door, Garrus stopped instantly petrified at the feeling come from this door. There was something in him that told him not to go in there.

Fear

“Found something?” Zaeed asked from afar and Garrus couldn’t move just kept staring at the door.

“Yeah, but something isn’t right. It’s like my entire instincts are telling me not to go in there.”

Zaeed’s eyebrows raise, “Come on it can’t be that goddamn bad.” Zaeed got to the door and looked at it weirdly. He understood what Garrus was talking about, but he opened the door anyway. Information could be behind there that is needed for this mission after all.

Garrus threw up and Zaeed looked in horror; it was bad.

A mountain of dead bodies Human and Krogan with a few Varrens were all meshed together. Blood, old and new, was everywhere. But the smell. The smell was the worst part. When mixing a high amount of dead decaying bodies pumped full of chemicals, and have them sit in the hot Tuchanka sun. It’s not something anyone should be smelling.

Garrus' senses were on fire. The smell was making his body burn and he could taste it. He could taste the death and chemicals mixing from the bodies. He threw up again.

“He…lp.” Was suddenly heard making Garrus and Zaeed turn towards the voice. It was a Krogan and she was laying on some of the bodies. They rushed over to her.

While they were working on helping her other voices were heard calling out for help. A dread feeling was being felt inside his body, but Garrus push through the feeling to save the Krogans.

Luna finishes gathering the data and thanked EDI for her part when the smell hit her.

The smell made her throw up and she clutches the wall looking over at Garrus, “Fuck! How did it get worse!?” Garrus looked over at her as she wipes her mouth and walks towards them.

“We found a few Krogans who are alive.” This made her stop in shock before rushing over to them.

Outside of the room of horror were five Krogans and judging by their form they were females. One was laying down on another one's legs being hushed as she was shaking. Garrus didn't hear anyone calling out for help and closes the door.

“Let go…go to the elder’s young on. Let go.” Luna frowns at the words and clutched her teeth.

_“Let go, John, its ok…we…we’re going to be okay. I N7 swear.”_

Tears were threatening to fall as she watched this female Krogan hush the other one who finally gave up the fight and is now laying there motionless. Garrus was sitting down watching with Urz resting beside him, he was unconsciously rubbing the Varrens head gaining comfort. Zaeed was leaning on the wall a serious expression on his face trying to make sense of the whole thing.

“She was the most fertile of us all. Her name was Niomi; she has two children, a boy, and a girl. I will make sure to tell them of her sacrifice to save the Krogan people.” Luna sighs hugging her body thinking of Maleon hoping he was among the dead and not apart of this sick experiment.

“Tell me…was he forced to do this to you?” The Krogan looked up at her.

“The Salarian? No.” Luna looks down in disappointment, anger, and depression.

_‘I am going to kill him with my bare hands.’_

“We wanted to help.” The second Krogan replied.

“We wanted a future for our children and our children's, children.” The third Krogan replied.

“But we never intended for….for this….oh, Uno…why must the elders take you.” The forth Krogan sobs, she had a much higher voice than the others and sounded younger.

“Who was Uno?” Luna whispers almost in fear.

“Uno….was my twin sister…she…she told me about this…she wanted this…but he caused her so much pain. She begged for death. Oh, Uno…she died in pain, but at least…she is at peace. May the elders protect her in the Void.” She starts to cry harder while shaking. Luna inhaled and exhaled hoping to calm her emotions.

“My name is Lunaria Shepard. I came to save that man, but it seems he wanted this.”

“My name is Urdnot Unya.” The young high pitched female said.

“I am Weyrloc Jun’ka, at least I was until this happened to me.” She was the third Krogan who spoke her voice sounded raspy as if she’s been screaming for a long time.

“Nakmor Dorin, I am from a small clan I just wanted to help.” She whimpers; she was the second Krogan to speak.

When Luna looked back at the first, she knew this one was a leader something in her voice told her. The Krogan female continues to lightly stroke the now dead female on her.

“I have no name I gave it up when I became a Shaman of my clan years ago. I came to see a future not just for the children, but for all of us. The Krogan people have suffered enough through the Genophage. What I did not expect was this…barbaric approach to helping us. So many have died for this cure and now it seems there was no purpose to it all." She said sadly.

Luna was seriously starting to hate this mission and wish she wasn't evolved, but what would have happened if she wasn't?

"I don’t know if there were any results, but what I do know is this. He wanted us gone. He wanted the evidence of what he’s done to not show to the galaxy. It’s why he ordered us inside there. Told the other Krogan men we were not needed anymore.” The female Sheman spoke.

Luna shook her head and closed her eyes to think. Coming back to her senses she nods and walks away from the scene calling her mother on her Omni-tool. When she answers she saw her mother looking annoyed while standing holding onto something in the vehicle she is in.

“Mom?”

_“Oh, Luna hello sorry Tuchanka is…very bumpy.”_

“Why not sit down?”

 _“I tried and it made the ride worse. Have you sat in a tomkah before?! Think of bouncing up and down on rock!”_ Luna cringed at the image and was happy that the Mako have nice cushioned seats.

 _“I did offer you my lap earlier Laena”_ Wrex called out laughing.

 _“Hush! Luna is everything alright?”_ Luna bit her lips looking back at the female Krogans.

“How close are you?”

 _“We are very cl-”_ She heard a mini scream and all she saw was a black screen; this made Luna panic.

“Mom!” A laughter was heard.

 _“Just like old times huh Laena?”_ A groan was heard and her mother’s face appeared.

 _“I hate this planet sometimes…”_ Growling she looked back at her daughter.

 _“You didn’t have to wait till now to sit on my lap.”_ Wrex laughs again.

 _“Wrex!”_ Her mother looks pretty flustered at this point.

_“It’s okay I know how to keep you stable.”_

_“Luna! We are close! Tell me What happened!?”_ Luna blinked a little narrowing her eyes before shaking the image out her head.

“Females mom there are Krogan females here. They have been through a lot and need help to stabilize. We did give them medi-gel, but I don’t think it’s enough. I don’t know much about science so you and the good doctor need to get here quick.” She quickly said.

Laena nods, _Wrex tell the driver to go faster. And only hold my waist!”_

Luna walked over to Garrus and sat down next to him, pondering.

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah, they are rushing to get here. Hopefully, we can have them stabilized.” It was quiet for a moment before Garrus sighs.

“It always comes down to experimenting on people.” He whispers sadly and Luna holds his hand then sighs leaning on him.

“I am not naïve to think this would be the last time. There will always be someone somewhere willing to sacrifice living beings just to advance their knowledge. I mean my mother was one of them.” They were quiet for a moment again before Garrus starts to open up.

“There was this Turian female her name was Mayre. She was…beautiful and everyone loved her. She and I…we started to date and I fell in love with her. My father and sister loved her, but the main person I wanted approval from was my mother, and she loved her as well. Right there I knew she was the one. I wanted to bond with her, but she wanted to wait. She was an actress and singer who wanted to go big one day and I was happy being there for her. So, I waited for her.” Luna bit back her jealousy and gave him a questioning gaze.

“Why do I feel like there is a tragedy in this story?” She asks.

He laughs bitterly, “My life is a tragedy…There was this doctor…he.” He can feel his anger swell and Luna can feel him grip her hand tightly.

“That fucking bastard. Dr. Saleon, he’s a Salarian who works in the black market organ trade. I didn’t know she was sick…she hid it so damn well. We’ve dated for months and I just didn’t…know.” He growls in anger making sounds of sadness and Luna rubs his back.

“Don’t blame yourself Garrus you didn’t know.” He looked at her with sadness.

“If I have known she wouldn’t have used one of his organs, Shepard. She was in high need of it, but because she wasn’t a fucking millionaire she was one a waitlist. I would have fought to get her what she needed." He looks down sadly trying to not think about his lost love.

Luna rubs his back whispering kind words to help.

He took a deep breath, "It…it killed her. It fucking killed her. For a month it ‘worked’, but it was slowly poisoning her and she didn’t know. That fucking bastard told her it was fine! After her passing, I looked for him. I studied him. My father told me to stick to the books, but I didn’t want to. When we found out what he was doing…spirits…he was using his employees as organ growers, and if there was a bad organ, sometimes, most times, he would leave it in there. Sometimes it would be sold, just like with Mayre.” Luna’s eyes went dark she’s seen this before on the ship. Many of the Humans died from bad organs. She held her side and bit her lips.

“I’ve had that happen to me a few times…it’s where some of my scars came from…I was fortunate enough to survive. My mother had to endure as well. God…so many people died. So much they had to stop the operation and focus mostly on using us for the drug they were creating. Can’t experiment on the drug if everyone dies.” She laughs bitterly.

“Is there anything they didn’t do?” He asked fearing the answer; he was starting to hate Batarians.

“They didn’t rape me. Although they did rape other women including my mother.” She looks forward. “Tell me you killed that doctor.” She whispers hoping that Dr. Saleon was dead.

“No.” He said bitterly.

She glares at him in anger, “Why?!” She screams causing everyone to look her way, but she didn’t care. He should be dead!

“My father stopped me from killing him. Dr. Saleon escaped on a ship after destroying his lab while taking some of his employees and I was telling them to shoot it down. My father overrode my orders stating that there are civilians to protect and that there are rules. I lost my mind after that and hated my father for a good while. I ran off looking for him giving up my job and my family. When I couldn’t find him I was down on my luck and ended up on Omega; you know the rest. The only thing I could say is as time passed I lost sight of why I left the Citadel. My team helped me heal from losing Mayre, and I moved on. It wasn’t until recently I started to remember Dr. Saleon and being here gave me the drive to find him after this mission.” He said looking forward.

She stares at him and pushes him against the wall anger in her eyes, “I hope we do. I hope we find that fucking Salarian and end his life.” She said angrily remembering her friend from the ship dying in her arms. Garrus stares in her eyes seeing the fire and passion in it. It reminded him of Mayre, their heads met.

An hour later the door opens. Dr. Shepard and Dr. Mordin rush inside ignoring everyone while heading straight to the female Krogans.

“Have called in STG favor. Will have females in a stable medical facility.” Mordin said.

“Another hospital.” Unya whimpers.

“Yes, another hospital that will make sure you are safe and sound no more experiments,” Laena said while saying a small sorry as she injects them with medicine.

“Melon escaped. Not only that; he was trying to hide and destroy data.” Luna said standing up with her arms crossed.

“He also persuaded a lot of Clan Weyrloc to kill off their people, and others, after we got here.” Garrus points out and Wrex growls.

“What do you mean ‘kill off’ their people? Why would any Clan do that shit?” Garrus points to the door that was sealed.

“I sealed it off myself, but if you want proof there it is. I am not going in there again.” He said with fear and disgust in his voice.

“In that room are our people who, in the doctor’s eyes, were failed experiments. Some died long ago, others recently. Some were thrown in there hoping to just die and be erased before anyone could find out what happened; such as my sisters and I. This means we were ‘dead weight’ and the Clan didn’t want that.” The female Shaman states after getting injected by Mordin.

Wrex walks over to the door and stops momentarily before opening, walking inside. It didn’t take long for him to walk out fist clutched and his face full of anger. Laena walks over to him glancing behind him and stood traumatized as memories of being a slave flash through her mind. Squeezing his shoulder tightly trying to gain comfort and remind herself where she was; she whispers under her breath.

“What are you going to do about this Wrex?”

“I’m going to destroy Clan Weyrloc.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope I was able to balance the light with the dark in this chapter! See you next week!


	15. Consequences

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are consequences to the crimes you commit and sometimes you don't need a war to give punishment, sometimes you just need an Assassin.

Garrus groans internally at the smell and walks over to the door to seal it back as the Krogan battle master growls about killing off Clan Weyrloc.

Laena snaps out of her traumatized daze, “You can’t do that Wrex!” She said, “I thought you were tired of Krogans fighting each other!” She yells as her usually calm self isn't there anymore.

“I can do whatever the fuck I want! You see what they have done Laena! They don’t deserve to call themselves Krogan.” She grabs his shoulders and looks him in the eyes.

“I understand you are angry, but to resort to violence is exactly what the Council expects from Krogans! You have changed! You are not some fucking Mercenary out for hire! You are the leader of Clan Urdnot, and you should think like one!” He pushes her away and proceeds to walk out of the room.

“Your words can’t work on me like before. You are right about one thing though.” He pauses and looks her dead in the eyes. “I am a leader and a leader won’t sit on their asses and allow this to go unpunished.” Laena stood there with her mouth open as the door closes behind him.

Turning to the group she gave a smile that sent a shiver down Garrus’s spine. “Mordin you have everything under control yes? Are your contacts still close by?” She asks her tone much deeper.

“Yes, they will be here shortly.” With a nod, Laena opens her eyes revealing a dark abyss before turning leaving the room to follow the Krogan.

Everything was tense as the pair left the room until Garrus spoke, “Who should I be worried about? The angry biotic or the Krogan?” He asks breaking the tension and Zaeed laughs.

“She’s not going to harm him, at least not in that way.” Zaeed then reaches into his pack and took a drink from his canteen.

Luna wanted to ask more questions, but Mordin walks over to her, “Shepard need to speak to you…privately.” Snapping her head to the Salarian doctor she nods and brings him into the room Maelon held his data.

“What’s up doc?” She asks and notices he looks nervous, at least, she thinks. When he took a deep breath before he starts she knew she was in for a good one.

“Krogan Genophage is, "He pauses, "was important in stopping Krogan Rebellions.” He said looking her in the eyes.

Luna leans on a table with her eyebrow raise. “Yes, I know this, but why do I have a feeling there is more to this story.”

Mordin pauses for a moment taken in the setting. He knew how Maelon works, always a bit messy, but very thorough in his work. Mordin was impressed, but remembering why he was here brought him back to reality.

Looking back at the red-eye leader, he begins to explain. “Krogan were starting to become immune. Needed to slow it down. Worked with team to create new Genophage against Krogan.”

Luna was taken aback at that statement. “Mordin…why?” She asks angrily.

After years of knowing Wrex, she has learned about what the Genophage has done to his people. It wasn’t just to stop the fertility like she was taught in the Alliance; the Krogan had to endure centuries of stillbirths. The women will lay their eggs and would have countless of stillbirths. Hearing of this made her sick to her stomach as she remembers the day her sister was ‘born’. The way the Batarians laughed and mocked her mother for being a useless woman.

“Had to Shepard. Someone else might have gotten it wrong.”

She glares at him, “Gotten it wrong? Look, I get it, Krogans are not exactly the kindest of species, but they are having stillbirths Mordin! Do you know much Krogan children are dying? You practically helped killed them.”

He shook his head, “I did not kill anyone. Genophage is fertility based. Krogans were supposed to live adequate lives, but instead, they fought each other. At least that was the saying. Did not know of stillbirths until meeting Wrex.” Mordin looks around his old assistant's lab wondering, again, how he missed that critical sign.

“When did you work on it? When I was sixteen and you had to leave for a few years?” She asks.

He nods, “Yes. It was a Galactic emergency.” He said.

“Have you told my mother?”

“Yes. She is very intelligent. Was helping her since I prefer her idea. The original idea of the Genophage.” He said regretfully.

“I…admit I didn’t care much about the Genophage before meeting Wrex. I always thought it was used to stop Krogan females from having one thousand babies each solar year, and would have a normal rate, but that wasn’t the case, instead, the Genophage causes stillbirths. Do you know what it feels like to lose a child? What it could do to a person? What it would do to a people!?” She shouts clutching her fist.

Mordin walks towards the console in the room and begins to type away.

“Maelon’s data. What he did here is not what we do. Torture. Experiments. Brutality. No, not what we do.” He starts to rumble under his breath and Luna clutches her fist.

“You know my sister was a stillborn right?” She growls.

“So many gave their lives. Why would he do this? Lies? No. Ego? Maybe.” He continues to speak under his breath and Luna can feel her powers growing out of control.

“Mordin!” He stops and stares at the moving screens not wanting to face Luna.

“Yes, your mother spoke of,” He inhales, “her.” Sorrow fills his voice.

“My mother has moved on, but it was one of the things that broke her.” He didn’t say anything and Luna looks away from him.

“We have created something that could help. With Maelon’s data, we could progress it. Make the Genophage what it was supposed to be. Having a controlled Krogan population.” He said logically.

She stood still in shock, “You still want to experiment on the Krogans!?” She shouts.

“Experiment? No! Would never stoop that low. Genophage was used to slow down Krogan explosive birthrates into moderate numbers. Not to have stillbirths! Still believe a cure is unreasonable.”

“I…yes you are right.” She sighs in defeat, “Tell me Dr. Mordin why one thousand children?”

“Because of Tuchanka. Large births were needed for the population to survive; high fertility was in balance with the death rate. That is not needed anymore. Krogan can survive without large birthrates. In Human history, there were large families for the survival of your race. Many children would be born, but only a few survive into adulthood, lifespan was much smaller around thirty to fifty. As time passed, modern medication became more assessable, and lifespan increase; large families were no longer needed. Population stable. Krogan would be similar,” He inhales, “if given the time and effort.”

Luna thought about what he said and nods, “I understand, and I hope you are right.”

Finally outside of the hospital, the STG team Mordin called arrives. They were able to help the female Krogans into a stabilizing pod shaped like a cube. Luna's gaze landed on her mother who was talking to Mordin; she looks sad.

“How are you doing?” Garrus whispers from behind.

“I am much better now that I am out of that hell hole. My mother looks like she’s saying goodbye to an old friend.” Garrus stares at the older Shepard.

“I need to report to the Council about this you know.”

She turns to look at him and nods, “I know…and they won’t be happy. I need to speak to the Shadow Broker soon. He hates waiting.”

He chuckles, “I sense a huge payday for you.”

“Oh yeah. I can feel my vacation.” She giggles.

Once Mordin, the females, and the STG team left. Everyone starts to prepare for the journey back to the Urdnot camp.

“You sure you don’t want to go on the Mako? We have room mom.”

“No, it’s okay. I’ll be fine. Plus, I need to drill it in Wrex’s head allowing his feelings to dictate how he rules would be the death of his Clan. I want the Krogan people to get out of this habit of shoot first, ask questions later.”

“Sounds like Luna.” She punches Garrus.

“Shut up Vakarian.”

“Ahh, Laena he’s just blowing hot air. No need to get all goddamn moral on him.” Zaeed laughs and Laena rolls her eyes while heading inside the Tomkah. Before the doors shut Luna watches as Wrex pulls her mother into his lap and her eyes went wide.

“Mom!?”

***

It was late at night on Tuchanka and Clan Weyrloc were having a meeting with Clan Urdnot.

“Okay, I see Chief Weyrloc Guld. Remember the plan if all goes to hell during this negotiation we take him and his people out.” Luna orders while using her sniper to watch the meeting.

Right now they are at the Hollows, this is a sacred ground of the Krogan, and violence is forbidden. On one side is Krogans from Clan Weyrloc and representing them on the ground is Chief Weyrloc Guld. On the other side is Krogans from Clan Urdnot and representing them on the ground is Urdnot Wrex. Both have their Clan speakers standing beside them.

“Hopefully Krogans will remember where they stand,” Zaeed said using his sniper. He notices that they were getting into each other's face as if about to fight.

“What happens after this is over? Do they stay as rivals? You heard Wrex he wants punishment for what they did.” Garrus said with Urz right beside him sleeping. 

“Hopefully not. Wrex understands that they need to work together if they want their people to have a place in this galaxy and not as just mercs.” Luna whispers.

Zaeed grunts, “I think after this I need a drink. The day was more exciting then it needed to be.” He said looking at the Krogans do some sort of battle cry, his finger lays on the trigger.

Garrus sat up as the two Humans kept watching. His hand quickly went to Urz's head petting the sleeping Varren.

Luna stops looking and turns to the Varren, “You taking that on my ship Vakarian? Because you need to take care of him.”

Urz wakes up momentarily and licks Garrus' face happily as Garrus continues to shower him with pets, “His name is Urz, Shepard, and I say why not? He’s well behaved, has a good nose, fights great, and is a good boy.” He scratches the back of his fringe and chuckles, “Just need to look into how to maintain him. I think the shudder bay is a nice place for him to walk around.”

Luna rolls her eyes, “Taking care of a pet is a lot of work big guy. Plus I have Archangel. What if he eats my baby!?” She said gasping quietly in horror.

“Urz won’t do that right Urz?” He started to scratch the Varrern's neck and Urz just pants in happiness wagging his tail.

“You really are attached to him.”

“What can I say he’s protected me and became my best friend. I just want him to have a good home.” He said putting his head on top of Urz.

“I thought I was your best friend?” Luna pouts playfully.

“Nah, you're more than that.” He winks at her and she couldn’t stop smiling feeling her face heat up.

“Looks like they are finished,” Zaeed calls out and they both turn to see everyone was starting to leave the grounds.

“Think it worked?” Luna bit her lips asking.

“Only one way to find out,” Zaeed said shrugging.

Leaving their position they made their way over to Wrex who was talking to the other Krogans, and he did not look happy.

“Come sunrise, we would battle and win! We will avenge the fallen for what they have done! If they surrender don’t kill them. We still need numbers. You! Runt! I want you to scout of their female's camps make sure not to get caught. Garlock get the explosives ready.” Wrex orders to the other Krogans.

Luna shook her head, “What the hell happened?” She groans.

“They didn’t want to surrender their Clan name. As I predicted. I told your mother they won’t listen to words only gunshots.” He said looking annoyed and tired.

“This is just…ugh.” Luna crosses her arms in frustration. “You’re telling her what’s going to happen by the way.” She said leaning back and pointing at him.

He groans, “Oh I know, and she’ll make sure, I know, she won’t be happy.” He shook his head thinking of the female doctor.

***

Navi was sitting on the Tomkah while on her Omni-tool giggling at a video Hilary sent her. When she looks up she saw Luna walking in looking exhausted with Garrus behind her. They turn a corner and were alone.

Luna groans, “Honestly, this day is fucking exhausting I feel like my entire body is going to drop,” She whines.

Garrus chuckles, “Well if you drop I’ll catch you. You are just not allowed to die on me.” He whispers.

“Is that an order, Sir?” She asks seductively and he bents down to her ears while his hands grab her waist.

“That is an order, and you’re going to listen to what I say.”

She gasps, “What if I don’t?” She asks mischievously.

He thought for a moment trying to decide on what he wanted to do. She tilts her head wanting to know what he is thinking about. Noting they are alone she reaches up and kisses his mandibles before licking them. This snaps him from his thoughts and he proceeds to pick her up and push her against the wall. She instinctively wraps her legs around his waist and giggles.

“Do you really want to know?” He licks at her exposed neck and she shivers.

“Yes.” He pulls back and chuckles then kisses her on the lips. Their tongues move in a hurry as their bodies began to dry hump each other.

“Damn Armor.” He growls nipping at her lips and she moans reaching behind his fringe scratching at it. Their tongues continue to explore each other’s mouth when a mini gasp was heard. Pulling away they turn their heads to see a wide eyes Navi staring at them.

“Navi!” Luna gasps not knowing what to say.

“I am so sorry!” And she ran off. Luna just stares as Garrus leans his head on her shoulder breathing hard while he was willing himself back inside. She starts to laugh and leans her head against the wall. Garrus looks at her oddly and she lays her head against his.

“Fuck. Now I am exhausted and very horny.” She said still laughing and he laughs alongside her knowing how it feels.

Luna saw Navi looking nervously playing with Urz. Placing a hand on her causes Navi to jump in fright.

“Oh! Lulu! Hi!” Navi’s mandibles twitch in nervousness and excitement.

Luna smiles at her sister softly, “Okay,” She sighs, “I know what that looked like and I just want to tell you that Garrus and I are just having fun. We are not serious, and you are old enough to know this.”

“Yeah…I figured.” She said sadly.

“Wait that saddens you?” Luna asks in shock at the sounds she was making.

Navi gasps and shook her head, “Oh no! I mean! I figured since everything with you-know-who is still up in the air; I knew you guys aren’t dating. Although I think you should just forget you-know-who and just go with Garrus.” Navi said shrugging.

“Navi no. Garrus is…just a friend…with benefits nothing more okay?” She said nervously.

Navi rolls her eyes, “Sure, okay. Anyway, mommy would like to speak with you. She sounded pretty upset, I am guessing Wrex did not go with the plans.” Luna groans and heads over to where her mother is.

“There is going to be a battle tomorrow. Nothing can stop it.” They were walking towards the arguing as they saw Wrex looking very annoyed at the also annoyed doctor.

“Honestly, why do all women want to talk about it? Then think about it. Then talk about it some more?!” He asks frustrated.

Laena rolls her eyes, “Believe it or not women have great ideas on how to NOT kill each other! Why don’t you try listening?!” She shouts.

“I did! And now it’s time to prepare for battle because they are not going to listen.”

“We did the whole negotiating thing, mom. It doesn’t look like it’s going to change. Might as well just do it.” Luna said shrugging at the yelling pair hoping they would stop.

Laena suddenly loses it and screams causing trembles within the camp. Everyone stops talking and looks her way. Luna was taken aback her mother never lost her cool like this.

“For centuries they have been doing this! Fight after fight! You’ve seen that hospital Luna! You’ve seen what they are reduced too!” She yells at her daughter before walking towards Wrex and poking his chest getting close to his face, “How many of your kind is going to die Wrex before you stop fighting all the time!? It always shoot first then ask questions later! Not everything can be solved by going to war!” She screams again causing a shockwave and the camp starts to tremble once more as the surrounding Krogans were blown away. Wrex didn’t move from her powers, he wasn’t a weak Krogan; he could handle Laena’s powers even consider her his equal.

The entire camp was full of tension as the two powerful people stare each other in the eyes daring one to break contact. Luna saw that her mother’s eyes were black as she stares at Wrex. Her body was beginning to glow as well and this scared Luna. Laena’s powers, because of intense training of mind-body connection, and the Batarian drug; is as strong as an Asari matriarch. Normally seeing her powers on display didn’t concern Luna, but something was clearly off about her mother.

“Somethings do and this is going to happen! We are not some fucking weak Humans. We are Krogan! We fight or we die!” Wrex punches the wall and the other Krogans started to cheer whiles Laena was seething.

“Weak Humans!?” She growls, with the flick of her wrist, she lifts a large boulder.

“Mom! Stop!” Luna calls out causing her mother to drop the boulder to the ground while breathing hard, she glares at the Krogan who just glares at her back.

“Fine, if you want to die I will not mourn your death.” She said darkly before walking away heading into the camp’s medical area. Wrex stares watching her walk away growling and clutching his teeth.

Luna sighs and begins her journey back to the Normandy, her mother can always call for a shuttle when she’s ready. There was a part of her that wants to talk with her mother, but she was sure it wasn't needed. Give her a quiet place allowing her to meditate and her mother would be fine. Thinking back to that room made Luna shiver, she never saw what was inside, only snippets, but she did smell it. 

Luna looks down with a sad expression as the shuttle took them to the Normandy. Even at peace with herself, her mother still gets traumatized at a sight similar to their past, similar to that...ship. 

_"I guess the memories will never go away huh, mom?"_

***

Luna was typing a message to the Shadow Broker while in her Information room on the Normandy; and Garrus was talking to the Council explaining the situation with them in the QEC. Once that was over he walks over to her annoyed.

“So…big fight tomorrow you ready?” He said trying to find a way to ignore that headache forming. She didn’t say anything and he thought she was ignoring him. After finishing with her report she jumps a little seeing Garrus leaning back against the railing with his eyes closed arms crossed against his chest.

“Jesus Garrus, when did you appear?” She asks nervously laughing.

He cracks one eye open, “You just realized I was here? I feel offended.” His mandibles twitch in playfulness.

She looks around and saw no one was paying attention to them. Taking the opportunity she leaned her body against him, wrapped her arms against his neck, and kiss him. His heart was racing at the gesture and he hoped she didn’t hear. She pulls back with a smile on her face.

“Sorry, sometimes when I am writing my report for the Shadow Broker I have to tune everything out.” He chuckles and held her waist.

“So your mom and Wrex.” He said giving her a knowing look.

“Please don’t entertain the idea.” She groans.

“It seems something is there.” He shrugs.

Luna rolls her eyes, “Come on he’s a Krogan. Can you imagine a Krogan with a Human?” She cringes at the image.

“I mean when you say it,” He cringes as well. “Alright and now I am scarred for life. Thank you by the way.” She giggles and starts making her way towards the lab.

“Want to join me upstairs? There is a big battle tomorrow and I want to release all my pent up energy after today.” Feeling pretty pent up as well, he quickly made his way over to her.

As they got to her cabin he was still impressed by how large her cabin is as he walked inside. The first thing he looks at was the fish tank.

“I am starting to understand why you placed this here.” She looks at him confused and turns to watch the fish swim around.

“Oh?

“It’s relaxing and after a stressful day it’s nice to have that be the first thing you see when you walk inside.” She smiles and they stood there enjoying the moment. Luna begins to mess with her hair getting the curly mess into a bun before heading into the bathroom.

“The view is nice, but I need to wash myself off. I hate feeling dirty after every mission so I make it a point to head straight there.” He chuckles and begins to take off his clothes.

“I see your point. Mind if I join you?” As he walks inside the bathroom, Luna was halfway out her skin tight undersuit. He watches her breast shake a little as she turns to greet him.

“I do mind thank you very much. If you could wait for your turn, Sir, that would be great.” She gave him a seductive smile and he slaps her ass hard enough to make a sound.

“I don’t like waiting. How about you strip for me, Luna.” He growls in her ears and squeezes her ass tight making sure to use his talons giving her a little pain, she moans. Sitting down with only his pants on, he waits for her with a smirk. She giggles before slowly undressing. Because the suit was so tight she made it a point to turn around to take it off wiggling her ass in front of him. Garrus swallows hard as feels his plates shift at the sight.

When the suit was by her feet she turns around and kicks it away. He leans backs and watches her as she enters the shower enjoying the view. Taking the soap bar she faces Garrus and starts to rub herself slowly starting at her breast while looking him in the eyes. As she soaps herself up in front of him she teases him in the process by rubbing her clit with one hand while squeezing her neck lightly with the other moaning for her, Sir, to fuck her. As the water washes down her brown body and her arousal fills his nose Garrus groans thinking of Turian chocolate wondering if she tastes just as sweet.

After her shower, she didn’t get out and just stayed under the water having it run down her body. Leaning against the wall, still rubbing her clit, she opens her legs wide as the water hits her body staring and begging him to join her with her eyes. When she was getting closer to coming he starts to growl. 

“Come here.” He demanded and she stops giving him a playful look.

“Why, Sir?” He was staring at her intensely and she feels her body begging for him.

“I said come here.” He demanded again.

She smirks, "No," she said hoping to get a rise out of him. 

Garrus stares at her his mandibles twitching excitedly at her disobedience. As he stood up he stands in front of her trying to intimidate her to submission. He knows she playing with him and he's loving it.

"What? You think standing in from of me is going to make me do as you say?" She licks her lips looking him up and down. Without a word he went to grab her, but she was quick dodging from his grasp; he lets out a chuckle when she giggles behind him.

"Luna," he said making sure to express that she's being bad. When he turns around he saw her smiling at him innocently.

"Not quick enough, Sir, and you call yourself a Turian." She teases and before he could say anything she rushes out the door.

He gave her a little headstart before chasing after her. This chase reminded him of all the times he would chase her across the galaxy, just in a much smaller scope. She would run around the room as he goes to grab her and whenever he does get the upper hand she would find a way to slip away from him. Right now she was standing on the bed smiling and taunting him like a brat. Garrus laughs enjoying the view wanting to just taste her wet sex as he could smell it from where he stood; Spirits he was thirsty for her right now.

"What's wrong Sir? Giving up the chase?" She starts to do a little dance rotating her body in a circle showing him everything he desires; and because the bed isn't flat her tits would bounce as her ass jiggles. 

"Giving up? I never give up. I just like to weigh my options before I attack!" He grunts before grabbing her legs with both hands. She squeals in fright as she drops on the bed laying on her back.

"Garrus!" She screams looking up at him, but all he does is laughs before spinning her around to show her beautiful round ass and begins slapping her as she squirms. One hand held her down tightly and he kept her legs in between his tightly to keep them under his control.

"When I say, " Slaps, "to come here," Slaps, "You come." He slaps again making sure to squeeze. Luna's toes curls at her punishment feeling herself get wetter. He bends to her ears breathing hard against it as he rubs her ass slowly.

"Are you going to be good now, Luna?" He asks as she whimpers and nods, but he wasn't satisfied and slaps her again, hard. 

"Yes Sir! I'll be good I promise!" She moans breathing heavily and shaking. 

His mandibles twitch happily and he stands up. She continues to lay there on her stomach waiting for instructions. 

"Turn around and open your legs." He commanded and she turns on her back looking at him intensely still breathing hard. Slowly she opens her legs giving him a full view of her glistering sex.

He gives an auditable groan as her smell was so intoxicating he could taste it. Before she could say anything his hand was reaching between her legs and she gasps biting her lips.

“Are… you going to lick me, Sir?” She whimpers and he looks at her.

“Are you ordering me?” He said darkly as his mandibles twitched. He starts to rub her swollen clit and she moans.

“No…no Sir.” She was panting now as he rubs her harder. He was getting impatient with himself. As much as he wants to play with her; he was craving her taste.

“Open wider, I want to taste you.” He commanded and she obeys opening her legs wider for him to see. Now he has a full view of her wet pussy and he starts to study it. 

She starts feeling insecure, “St...stop looking at it like that.” She begs closing her legs. He looked at her and she bit her lips. 

"Luna," Is all he said expecting her to listen. She went to open her legs again for him, but quickly shuts her legs gigging to his annoyance. Not wanting to wait anymore he grabs her legs with both his hands and begins to pray them open. 

Luna has strong legs.

_"Spirits this woman!"_

Luna giggles, "Come on Sir, not stronger than little ol me?" She teases and he looks at her hungrily making her bite her lips in anticipation. His desire to taste her was strong as he uses more strength to open her legs wide open, and before she could close her legs again he uses his fingers to part her lower lips then licks her with his thick blue tongue. 

_‘Oh…my God…’_ She thought as she shivers grabbing the sheets.

Garrus delve deep inside of her with his tongue which was making her crazy. His mandibles kept twitching which almost made her giggle, but the sounds coming out of her mouth were only moans.

“P...please Sir, R...ub me. ” She begs and his thumb started to rub at her sensitive clit. His eyes watch her body shake and her breathing becoming labored as her facial expressions change. She had her eyes close and each time he would give a quick lick to her clit she would moan loudly almost cursing. 

When she opens her eyes to look down at him their eyes met in an intense staring contest. He groans feeling his cock emerge from his plates growing hard as he listens, and tastes her; his tongue went as deep inside of her as possible causing her to shoot up halfway and grab his fringe with one hand humping his face. One of his hands reaches up to grab her breast and begins to pinch her right nipple. She arches her back pushing her stomach out forward as her hand on his fridge tightens and the other grips the sheet for dear life.

When he pulls his tongue out of her he replaced it with his finger and focus his tongue on her clit. This made her toes curl and her mouth water; she felt dizzy with desire.

“Spirits Luna, you're wet, ” He groans wishing to be deep inside of her. She shakes at her name falling from his mouth. The way he says it always makes her crazy.

His finger starts to roughly fuck her as he leans up to kiss her lips. She could taste herself, and she didn't mind at all.

“Oh, Garrus! Fuck….Fuck.” She whimpers, she wanted to hold on for her Sir, but she couldn’t. He starts to pound faster into her wet core while rubbing her clit with his thumb and he could feel her pulsing. With a smirk, he pulls his finger out.

“Sir! Please!” She screams begging in high frustration.

Taking her chin in his hand and looks into her eyes enjoying her frustration. 

“You like that?” He growls at her.

“Please…please I want to come.” She whimpers begging with her eyes black as the abyss. Garrus was starting to really love looking at her eyes like this.

“Were you going to come without my permission?” She was breathing heavily and shaking, but shook her head whimpering.

“No…no Sir.”

“Are you mine, Luna?” When he said her name she clutches her teeth and feeling herself almost coming at his voice.

She looks up at him innocently, “Yes Sir.” She whispers kissing his twitching mandibles as her legs begin to wrap around his waist.

He takes off his pants and starts to rub against her pulsing clit making her body jerk with pleasure. When he looks at her she composes herself making sure not to come without his permission.

“Are you going to be my good girl?” He whispers in her ears and she wraps her arms around his neck as her face lays on his chest. “Luna,” He warns.

“Yes…yes Sir I’m your good girl.”

He starts to rub faster against her clit rewarding her for being a good girl. She holds his body tighter as she could feel herself getting closer to the edge again.

_‘Hold it, Luna. Be a good girl and hold it!’_

She was seeing stars and moans louder as drool falls from her mouth open in absolute pleasure. Closing her eyes tight she was begging the Turian god or goddess or whoever to have him let her come. As she was reaching her edge Garrus stops, again, and she screams. He pulls away from her and she stares at him devastated; all he did chuckle at her.

“I…I was being a good girl! I was so close!” She cries out as her heart races.

He laughs, “Oh I know, but I would rather be inside of you before you come for me.” He said enjoying the look on her face and her beautiful full black eyes.

He picks her up and brings her back to the shower and orders her to show her ass in the shower for him. Luna, still shaking from being on the edge, walks into the shower feeling excited at what’s to come.

She turns the shower on to a respectable degree that works for him and her. Placing her hands flat against the wall she enjoys the water washing her frustrated body. Not having a full moment to think, she was slammed against the wall. His mouth made it to her neck and bit her hard enough to make her scream out in pain and pleasure.

“Garrus!” She moans loudly, and he lifts her leg slipping himself deep inside of her making her cry out again.

“What…what do you say, Luna.” He whispers in her ear as he pounds into her tightness.

“Thank you, Sir! Oh, fuck…tha…thank you! Please…please Sir fuck…fuck me harder…pl…please.” She begs him. He groans grabbing her waist tightly and squeezes pumping harder into her. The pace they were in was intense, hot, and wild; but the hot water was, oddly, cooling her down.

Using his hand from her waist he grabs her head holding it against the wall as he slams into her.

“Like it when I’m deep inside of you?” She whimpers as her legs were shaking. Using one hand to rub against her clit feeling herself getting close; her other hand continues to use the wall as support.

“Yes, Sir…yes…yes!” She screams feeling the pressure build up inside of her.

“Luna…your powers…spirits!” He can feel her powers seep into him causing him to pump even faster.

“Please….Sir, please let me….come! Please!” He growls holding her head harder and he drops her leg before grabbing and squeezing her waist tighter causing some blood.

“Come for me, baby. Come for me, Luna.” She screams and rocks against him as she dissolves into pleasure. He felt her powers intensely run its course in his body causing him to explode into her as he curses, slamming into her hard multiple times as he comes.

Letting go of her head and waist his arms wrap securely around her. He kept pumping into her and she moans leaning her head back exposing her neck to him. Her arms wrapped around his neck breathing heavily.

“Again….again…I’m so close,” Garrus growls and uses his talons to graze her stomach making her whimper. His hand then travels from her stomach to her throat choking her while his other hand rubs at her clit. She can feel the high of being choked getting to her and her body started to glow.

“Come for me again Luna.” He commanded in her ears quietly as he releases her throat making her gasp and groans as another pleasurable release ripples through her body a second time. He closes his eyes and groans as her powers push him to the edge of his own second release.

They were both shaking and leaning against the wall for support as the water washes them from their intense activity.

He lazily wraps his arms around her and kisses her neck, “Can I just say…your powers are amazing.” He pants.

She giggles leaning her neck to the side to give him full access and lays her arms on his, “You know, I realized this is the only time it doesn’t hurt when I use it.” She smiles.

She then turns around in his arms and kisses his mouth plates. When he starts swirling his tongue around hers, she moans. Pulling back she smiles again and their heads touch.

“So rough today big guy.” He stares into her red eyes and chuckles.

“Yeah…after what happened on Tuchanka and then dealing with the Council. Had a lot of pent up energy. Are you hurt?” She giggles again.

“Not really, hurt is something I really like when it’s you doing it to me. But if you went too far I’ll use the safety word don’t worry. Then again my ass is kind of, in pain.” She looks behind her to see her ass has marks of his talons. He rubs her ass gently with care murmuring a genuine sorry. She smiles and kisses him again telling him it's okay before turning around feeling the water against her body.

After their shower, Luna was watching a romance movie involving an Asari and Krogan. While Garrus was laying down with his eyes closed slowly falling to sleep. When Luna saw him she decided to turn off the movie.

“You should have said something. Would have stopped the movie.” She said.

He cracks one of his eye open and looked at her, “I didn’t mind it. I could sleep with some noise. Plus you were enjoying that movie. Who am I to take that pleasure away? This is your cabin, Shepard.” He whispers before yawning.

She chuckles and lay down the room completely dark beside the light from the fish tank. Luna looks up at the space roof and watches the stars. She knows that the ship isn’t moving as it was still above Tuchanka, but looking at the stars was nice.

“I know it’s my cabin, but I would like for you to be comfortable.” She whispers.

When he didn’t say anything she turns to see him fast asleep. He was on his side looking towards her as the sheets were on him. She went back to looking at the stars and smiles sadly remembering the nights she and her father would watch the stars on Mindoir.

_‘I want to be just like you daddy’_

_‘Oh?’ she giggles._

_‘I wanna see the stars!’ She points at the stars in the sky._

“I can see the stars dad. Can you see me?” She reaches up pointing to the stars after a moment a Turian hand slowly reaches up and their hand becomes entwined. She looks towards Garrus who was looking back at her. Luna then brings their hands down onto the bed, still together, in between them.

Both their bodies were facing each other and Luna couldn’t help her heart from beating fast as she stares at the eyes of the Garrus.

 _‘So blue,’_ she thought with a lazy smile on her face.

When his eyes close she follows.

***

The next day Luna and Garrus made it back on Tuchanka with Navi and Zaeed. Urz came to greet them and Garrus bent down rubbing his head and belly.

“Did you miss me, boy? Don’t worry ill convince her to let you stay on the Normandy before we leave.” He said as the Varren licks his hand.

Luna laughs, “I hope you succeed.”

When they arrived at the center of the camp Laena was speaking with Wrex. They seem a lot more relaxed from yesterday. Sensing Luna and Garrus behind her Laena turns to them and smiles.

“Morning mom. Looks like you two are back on good terms.” Nodding at Wrex who was relaxing on his chair and he nods back.

“Yes, I hope you all had a good night’s rest. First, I want to say sorry for being very frustrated yesterday. After seeing that room my mind sort of…broke. But no worries! I was able to release that frustration last night which in turn brought me back to my old self. In doing so I found out a way we could achieve Wrex’s end goal without too much bloodshed.” Laena said happily.

Luna narrows her eyes at her mother’s release statement and notices she is practically glowing. Her mind starts to theorize why her mother is so…happy but ignores it in favor of knowing what her mother is talking about.

“And that would be?” She asks suspiciously.

“Assassination,” Laena said with a smile on her face.

“Assassination?” Luna asks in surprise.

Wrex looks at Luna and nods, “I’m not fully okay with this, but Laena is right gaining control of Clan Weyrloc would be easier if Guld is killed. There are already talks of deserting because of the experiments and the failed cure.” Wrex said.

“Well if that’s the case sure, and because you are my friend, you’ll get a discount.” Luna grins at the old Krogan who just laughs leaning back.

Wrex smirks, “I think I paid my dues last night.” His eyes were focused on Laena and winks at her. When he said that this made Luna give a look of horror towards her mother who was now looking flustered.

Laena’s eyes grew wide at Wrex’s inability at keeping their secret, “B-back to the matter at hand! Luna please make sure to kill both the Clan speaker and Chief. With both dead, there will be a power struggle and that’s when Wrex will take over. Clan Urdnot will grow exponentially, and with Wrex’s influence more Krogan can avoid bloodshed by focusing on what is more important; building a future.” Laena’s said looking at serious as possible towards her eldest daughter.

Luna was going to ask her mother about what the hell Wrex meant when Garrus spoke.

“Think I could join you?” This made her snap her attention towards him and shrugs.

“Sure if you want, but just so you know it’s just me laying down scoping the area until he shows himself. I am a perfectionist so even if he presents himself I need the moment to be perfect. So fair warning it could take hours.”

He chuckles, “It’s no big deal. Plus wouldn’t you want company?” He asks.

She thought about it then smiled, “I don’t usually have company during my assassination missions, so this would be an experience.”

When she was about to walk away Wrex sighs crossing his arms against his chest.

“Honestly, even after last night, I’m still not too happy we have to do this Laena. Much prefer to go into battle and use my shotgun to blow his head off for what he did.” Wrex said while shaking his head in disagreement.

Laena steps towards the Krogan forgetting where they were and touches his face looking into his eyes, “Come on Wrex why go into battle causing meaningless death? Not everything has to end with a battle. So what’s the difference in having one or two death instead of many?” Laena spoke softly to him trying to seduce him to stay with her plan.

He looks at her lazily, “The difference is it makes me look weak. Having to resort to killing him with someone else feels wrong.” He said.

Laena narrows her eyes at the Krogan, “No, what’s wrong is him allowing the death of countless of Krogans, and for what? For a cure that would cause a lot of discontent within the galaxy? Do you know what the Council will do to the Krogan people if they were cured? Your numbers wouldn’t be strong enough for a war Wrex. This is what I am trying to prevent. So what matters to you? More death from your people or your pride?” She said sternly, he groans in annoyance but gave a nod to Luna.

Luna stares at their closeness but doesn’t question it, “Alright let’s go Garrus guess we didn’t need to worry about a battle after all.” She said, her questions will have to wait since she has a job to do.

***

It was hours later and Luna was laying down using Vixen to watch for Chief Weyrloc Guld. Garrus was using his visor to watch for any movements while Urz slept nearby him.

“So this is the life of an assassin?” He said with a bored tone.

She chuckles, “Told you it’s just me laying around waiting for the perfect opportunity.” She looks at him from her position, “By the way, after we kill him and Wrex takes over, I will be hunting for information to give to the Shadow Broker. I’m sure it’s not much, but hey information is information never know when it will be useful.”

He pets Urz who yawns, “Always working for the Shadow Broker huh?” He asks and she didn’t say anything as she surveyed the area.

Seeing nothing Luna shrugs at him, “Of course. I know we are working together when it comes to this lovely mission, but I will always be a Shadow Broker agent. It helps pays the bills.”

“I just thought about something,” Garrus said after a few minutes passed by.

“Hmm?”

“Noveria.”

She shifts her body to the right and looks at him, “Noveria?” She asks.

He nods, “Noveria is a planet that’s not very…habitual and owed by Noveria Development Corporation or NDC for short. The NDC is known to lease out labs to high paying people who perform research too dangerous or controversial. So think about it, if I was a scientist on the run trying to create a very controversial cure, for instance, the Genophage cure? That is where I would go to practice more of my…experiments.”

She facepalms, “Why didn’t I think of that!? You are a genius Garrus!” She said excitedly.

He chuckles, “Of course I am. What would you do without me?” He teases and slaps her ass he grinning when it jiggles causing her to gasp him.

“Hey, Mr. Handsy, keep your hands to yourself when we’re on a mission.” She giggles.

He looks ahead to see nothing is happening. This made him push her onto her back and climb on top of her. Before she could say anything he kisses her lips.

“Don’t tell me what to do.” He growls biting her lips and she moans but pushes him away from her.

“Have you forgotten why we are here?” She ask slightly unsatisfied they couldn’t continue.

He sighs while going back to his spot, “No, but I feel restless. We’ve been here for hours now with nothing to do but watch Krogan try to on up each other.” He says rolling his eyes as he watches from afar two Krogans fighting one.

“I know I kind of feel restless even if this is what I usually do during my assassinations. I think it’s because I want to find Melon now. I want him to answer for his crimes, I will even use my biotic powers to kill him.” She growls trying to contain her explosive powers.

He shook his head, “I need to take him into the Council.” He replies watching the Krogan throwing one of his opponents.

She rolls her eyes, “Seriously Garrus? You saw what he did! Taking him into the Council will do jack shit!”

“Don’t let your emotions…no…your powers take control of you. Your mother told me-”

She turns to him and glares cutting him off, “Please don’t use my mother on me. I am a grown adult! I don’t need my mother’s teachings to live my life!” She shouts.

He remains silent just watching the Krogans fight until they finally overwhelm the one Krogan when two more joins.

More time past and it was now night time and the temperature dropped, but it wasn’t significate. Garrus was on his Omni-tool while using Urz as a pillow, and Luna was still looking through her scope watching.

She bit her lip feeling bad for snapping at Garrus and sighs.

“I’m sorry.” She said and he looked at her.

“I understand wanting justice, trust me. But the Council wants him alive to face punishment. I can’t go against their orders.” He said sadly understanding why her anger was warranted.

Luna shook her head, “I just get so…mad when I think of people who experiment on others.” She sighs heavily closing her eyes, “They should all just fucking die.” She murmurs under her breath.

“You don’t mean that.” He whispers looking at her.

“I do.” She growls.

“I understand Maelon, but have you forgotten your mother was also someone who experimented on others? Do you want her to just die?” He asks and Luna went numb.

***

_“I’m so sorry Navi, forgive me please” Laena cries out to the little Turian. Luna was sixteen and she was holding her three-year-old Turian sister who was scared at the older woman breaking down in front of her._

_“Mom get a hold of yourself! Why are you acting like this?” Laena was shaking her eyes were solid black and were pacing like a madwoman._

_“You don’t understand…you don’t understand! I did it! I killed so many Turians! What the Batarians did to us I did to them! I am so sorry!” She cries again and Luna bites her lips. Navi begins to cry reaching out to Laena._

_“Mommy why you cry?” Pulling away from Luna she hugs her tightly and Laena sobs harder._

_“I don’t deserve this life, I don’t deserve any of you. It’s my fault you are were hurt, Luna. My fault John, my sweet John, is dead. Karma that is what I am told Karma is the reason why you had to suffer. Because of me, you had to suffer. Forgive me Navi, forgive me, Luna, please.” Luna hugs herself remembering the ship and closes her eyes trying to push the thoughts away._

_“Why…why would you do something like that? Is that why you were able to save Navi? Because you experiment on innocent Turians?! How could you do something like that?!” She backs away in disgust. Laena was still shaking looking at Luna while holding Navi tight._

_“I needed, no, I wanted to. I wanted to learn about these aliens who invaded our solar system. As a scientist, I wanted to learn more and I did. But it was wrong so wrong of me. Forgive me please.” Navi was whimpering making sounds of fear and sadness._

_“Mommy, mommy.” She kept repeating._

_“I…mom…” Luna felt conflicted her mother was like those Batarians doing horrible things to innocent Turians, but this was her mother! And Navi’s, who is a Turian, mother! Fear is what Luna felt at that moment. Pulling Navi away from the crying and broken Laena; she starts to walk away holding Navi using the front of her body while using her arms on Navi’s back and backside for support. Instinctively Navi held onto Luna with her legs while staring at her glowing mother. Laena’s black abyss eyes staring back at the baby Turian._

_“Mommy Lulu Mommy!” Navi screams not staying still as her arms reach out to Laena. Carrying Navi tightly in her arms she begins to sprint away from the older Shepard. Laena’s powers started growing even more out of control and she screams._

_“I’m sorry!”_

***

“I’m sorry.” She whispers again now with tears running down her face.

Garrus shook his head, “I’m sorry you went through what you went through Luna.” He whispers.

She turns to look at him, “Doesn’t mean I could be an asshole.” Crawling over to him she touches his face and kisses him.

His mandibles twitch in happiness, “I like this sorry.” He whispers under her lips.

She giggles kissing him more passionately. She was straddling his waist as he grabs her ass and squeezes.

“God, you are obsessed with my ass.” She giggles.

He squeezes again, “Spirits! Have you seen your ass? So big, round, and squishy. It’s very alien to what I am used to when it comes to Turian women!" He laughs," You ruined me for Turian women.” He said squeezing once more.

She bursts out laughing leaning back as her arms were wrapped around his neck.

“I used to be so insecure about it! Yet here you are obsessed with it. Did you know women would get surgery to have it smaller or sometimes bigger?” He shook his head.

“You’re not allowed to make your ass smaller, Luna, that's an order by the way. I would fight anyone who tells you to downsize your ass. As for making it bigger? I don’t think that’s needed. It's already big and sexy just how I love it.” She kisses him hard on his mouth plates now fully turned on. Garrus wasn’t taking any chances if she was willing to have sex right now.

Pushing her down on her back she moans as his hands traveled down between her legs. There was a zip there in case of an emergency which he was very happy about since, to him, this was an emergency. His armor suit also has something similar, but right now he wanted to finger her. She whines in frustration wanting more than just a finger and he smirks.

_‘Teasing her has become a very fun thing to do.’_

Something in his mind told him to look up but he knew if he looks up the moment would disappear, and so he forces himself to keep kissing and fingering her.

“Garrus…”She whispers and he focuses on pleasing her. The itching feeling to look up didn’t go away and now it was pissing him on. Looking up from Luna’s face that was full of pleasure, he saw Chief Weyrloc Guld and his Clan speaker through his visor and groans.

“Fuck…Luna look.” He grumbles.

She gave him a confused look and spins around seeing her targets. In a rush, she pulls up the zip and spins on her stomach grabbing Vixen in the process.

“Okay you kill the Clan speaker and I’ll kill the Chief.” She commands.

He nods using his Krysae, “Ready when you are Shepard.” He said. From the corner of his eyes, he saw her close her eyes and took a deep breath.

“Amonkira, Lord of Hunters. Grant that my hands be steady, my aim be true, and my feet swift. And should the worst come to pass, grant me forgiveness.” When she opens her eyes they were solid black.

In a matter of moment, she shot the Chief dead and Garrus follows after. The clan then starts panicking and Luna blinks away her black eyes. Sitting up she stretches.

“Didn’t think of you as religious Shepard.” He said chuckling.

She stops stretching and smiles warmly at him, “I’m not, but my mentor is. He would usually say that before he kills someone. I kind of took that aspect of him and use it during my assassinations. It surprisingly helps to get my mind hyper-focus on my target while I use a little of my power. Not enough to cause damage to my body of course.” She replies grinning.

Garrus gave Urz a pet and feeds him a small pyjak treat before sitting in a reclined position staring at the chaos. Luna maneuver herself between his legs and sat down with her arms wrapping around her legs in a fetal position staring at the chaos while leaning back on his chest.

“Who is he?” He asks curiously wondering who taught her.

She smiles closing her eyes as she thought back to fond memories of her small group working for her mentor.

“Thane Krios.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know, I'm not that good at writing smut, but man do I love my smut LOL!


	16. Family Ties

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Little revelations that expand stories, but most of all, Family is important.

Back at the camp, Luna and Garrus greeted her mother, who was talking to the Krogan doctor.

“Yes, please make sure you give this to any of the warriors; it will help against any pain they might feel.” He nods at Laena and walks away.

Laena turns around and stops momentarily looking at Luna, a smile begins to form on her lips. Luna grinned at her mother.

“I got some good news. The chief is dead, and Wrex does not have to go to ‘war,’ I say this calls for drinks, don’t you?” Garrus nods at the drinks part.

“That’s great! I’ve been making sure the medical supplies were ready in case anything should happen. I’ll make sure to tell Wrex the outcome. Did you want to gain access to information from Clan Weyrloc?”

“Actually, yes, I do. I plan on heading there once Clan Urdnot occupies their territories.”

“No need to wait, Shepard. Already on it.” They all turned to see Wrex walking with a few warriors by his side.

“Really? How did you find out so quickly, Wrex?” Laena asks, shocked, and he laughs.

“I sent a scout to see if the job was done. Once he came back, we took charge while Shepard and the Turian head back here.” Garrus rolls his eyes at hearing Turian instead of his name.

“Well, I guess that’s settled. I’ll be heading back over to Clan Weyrloc’s main camp to see what I could dig up. Garrus, you coming?”

“Yes, right behind you.” Luna pauses and stares at him for a moment. She chuckles at where her mind went.

“Mind showing me the ship Laena? Navi won’t shut up about how impressive it is.” Laena smiles warmly at the Krogan.

“Of course, there is so much to show.”

As Luna and Garrus made their way back to Clan Weyrloc’s old camp, some Krogans greet Luna, who knew who she was. She nods at them before taking a look around.

“You’re well respected here.” He brings up after noticing the exchange

She looks at Garrus and chuckles, “Well, after showing them how I could take their asses down, you best believe they learn to respect me. Does help that Wrex is my friend.” She grins, walking over to a console and starts typing away.

“How did you and Wrex meet?” She pauses for a moment to think before answering.

“I was…I think…twenty-two, and was back home during this time after the Alliance discharged me. Omega was still shit, and I hated it, of course, and since my friends were doing their own thing, I was alone.” She sighs, thinking back, and Garrus watches her movements. 

Hearing her comment on being alone as her friends weren’t around reminded him about his team, how alone he felt after they were killed.

She turns to him and grins, “I saw this Krogan shoot some Turian in the face and said something about having his head for the bounty. Then, he saw me, and I quickly told him I wouldn’t tell anyone. That it was Omega, and no one will stop him from killing as long as it doesn’t mess with Aria. He laughed at me and told me he’s not here for me.” She laughs, rolling her eyes while turning back to the console.

“I was terrified meeting Wrex; he was this big ass Krogan who could, no doubt, kill me. But he let me go, and I went back to the clinic unharmed.” She said, taking out her Omni-tool.

“Let me guess, he came to the clinic, and you two became fast friends?” He asks, taking a look around the place, “Wouldn’t surprise me if you did.” He chuckles.

She rolls her eyes, “No, Big Guy. The next time I saw him, it was a few months later. He was here on Omega again to collect a bounty. When we saw each other, he asked me to help him and that he would give me some money. I knew how to kill; after all, I was a soldier, and my mentor taught me how to be an assassin, so I said, yeah.” She said, taking a seat and leaning back against a wall. 

Garrus begin to think of her mentor, Thane Krios, and wonders how close they were. Judging from the look in her eyes, whenever she brings him up, there was something there, and he felt jealous.

“After we killed the Batarian bastard for the bounty, he said I was good at what I did and would make a good bounty hunter.” She grins, “Wrex helped me get situated in the whole thing. It was something I needed because I was able to let my anger out while getting paid. My mother wasn’t too happy, but I told her working at the Clinic was unfulfilling.” She shrugs.

Garrus chuckles, “Is this the part where you leave your old life to meet this handsome Turian that will take you across the galaxy on a quest of love,” He laughs as he circles his hand in the air gesturing signifying the galaxy as he looks up. 

Luna’s face felt hot at his words, “I swear Vakarian, it’s like you want me to beat your ass.” She said, covering her face with her hand trying to contain her laugher.

“Pretty sure you want me to beat your ass,” he winks, and she crosses her arms in a huff, but he could see her smiling.

“Anyway! It wasn’t long for Wrex to tell me who his main employer was. He wasn’t an agent, just someone, the Shadow Broker, would call upon knowing he would get the job done. I ended up impressing the Shadow Broker, and he asked me if I wanted to work for him as an agent instead of just some bounty hunter. I was hesitant at first, but when I did my first job, I was in love.”

“With this handsome Turian,” he flirts, making sure to deepen his voice.

“Garrus!” She shouts at him bashfully feeling flustered.

“Come on, Luna, just admit you’re in love with this handsome Turian.” He teases motioning himself.

She sticks her tongue out, “Every time you say ‘handsome Turian,’ I want to punch you.” She scoffs and rolls her eyes, but her heart was racing as she looks at him; he was handsome.

“Punch me as much as you want. Just know, I will punish you. Of course, you are buying the toys for me to punish you. After all, you a rich Shadow Broker agent,” he chuckles before leaning against the wall.

She stands up and starts to go to other areas of the camp, looking for valuable information.

“I guess you can say I am rich. I think with the money I have, I could buy multiple properties, but I rather not. Most of it, I need to save just in case something happens to the ship,” Luna gave a small smile at his other comment, “or more toys for playtime.” She whispers, and he caught it.

“I think I have a punishment with a toy in mind.” He whispers back to her, and she gasps getting a little turned on by the thought

Coughing, Luna changes the subject, “With an expensive ship comes an expensive cost to maintain it.” She sighs.

He chuckles at the change, but doesn’t mind, “I guess you are correct about that.” He shrugs.

She looks at him, “How come you didn’t have an impressive ship? I mean, I’ve seen your apartment, I’m sure you can afford a nice ship.” 

He shook his head, “Not with what I make. Most of the money comes from investing and taking the leftovers from a mission to sell. The Council doesn’t pay us, but Spectres can do anything, and by anything, I mean anything to get credits. Do I do it? No, I guess I still have my father’s teachings still in me.” He said that bitterly and Luna notices.

“Not very close to your father?” She asks with a frown on her face.

He looks away to a corner, “Our relationship is…not easy. We have different ways to see things. He’s very ‘by the books,’ and I am not. Like I told you before, because of him, Dr. Saelon got away. Mayre’s murderer got away, and I’ve resented my father ever since.” He sighs, running his hands over his fringe. 

Luna tilts her head at him, noticing the little things he would do when in a bad mood, such as running his hands over his fringe or his mandibles would twitch a certain way.

“He did save my ass when asking Nilus, who became my Spectre trainer, for help.” He continues, “Which, I am grateful for him doing so, but seeing him again.” He shook his head and clutched his mouth.

Luna walks over to him and tip-toes to touch his head with hers. Noticing what she was doing, he leans down, meeting her halfway and feeling somewhat better.

“It made me remember Mayre and…I just…I can’t let her go. She was the first woman I’ve ever loved and to watch her pass away, while her killer gets to do whatever the fuck he wants,” He growls, “still hurts today.” He whispers, sadly pulling away from their head touch and running his hands over his fringe again; Luna starts to give reassuring rubs on his arms.

“It’s okay, Garrus. I know the pain of losing someone. I know how much it hurts like hell, but don’t let it consume you. Don’t let yourself miss moments with your father, because you never know when it’s too late to be there.” She whispers, remembering her father and wishing he was here right now.

He looks down, “I’ve been avoiding him since I became a Spectre. Surprisingly, he was supportive of me doing so. When I was younger and first qualified to become one, he shot the idea down, told me to work for C-Sec. I was pretty upset about his reaction but did what he told me to do.” He said bitterly.

He glares at a broken rock remembering his father’s reaction, but then how much love his father gave him after he was recused from Omega. He remembers the talk his father gave him, and it made him regret pushing him away. 

He looks at Luna in the eyes, “Maybe…maybe you’re right Shepard. I should talk to him.” He whispers before leaning down and having their head’s touch again in comfortable silence.

***

When Luna finished collecting information from the camp, they made their way back to the Normandy. Garrus told Luna he’ll see her soon and made his way to the battery while Luna walked into the information room to give the Shadow Broker the intel.

As she was looking through some information, she found some more details about Vido for Zaeed. The guy was a real piece of shit. Luna glared when she realized how big he was in the slave trade. He also has plenty of private investments that are shady as hell. The Blue Sons are known to be pretty wealthy, unlike the other top two gangs, and it all makes sense since Vido is the leader.

She wonders about the difficulty of getting to Vido. It would be pretty easy seeing how he’s not that combat strong, just a very cunning man. It’s Nassana Dantius all over again, and thinking of that cunt made Luna rolls her eyes. There was more information, and she spends an hour reading it all.

After looking more into Vido, she made her way to the cockpit wanting to sit and relax with Joker while explaining where they are headed.

“So, planet Zorya is the place we will be heading.” She said, sitting down and crossing her arms.

Joker looks away from his Omni-tool, “Wait, really? I thought you wanted to head to Noveria?” He asks.

She sighs and looks at him, “I did, but then I read up on Vido, and I understand that piece of shit needs to die. Plus, Zaeed is getting a bit grumpy as time passes.”

“A bit grumpy?” He asks sarcastically.

“Fine, more grumpy than usual. So can you get us there?”

He gasps, “Shepard, I feel insulted! Of course, I could get us there!” He grins.

“Great, just need to tell Garrus about the plan.” She said before sitting there as her eyes close.

Joker suddenly spoke, “I’m curious how Turians sound without a translator. I mean, think about it, they are birds like so it wouldn’t surprise me if they screech.” He chuckles.

Luna sat there looking at Joker in disbelief, “What…?”

He laughs, “Like okay! Think about it! If the translators broke, it would be like ‘Squawk!’ you know.” He demonstrated.

Luna’s mouth was open, staring at this man. She then begins to think of Garrus and how he would sound if the translator is off. Hearing him squawk made her burst out laughing. They were both deep into laughter when EDI chimes in on the conversation.

“That would be incorrect. Although Turians are known, amongst Humans, to look similar to birds, they are not birds, nor do they have a language of ‘birds.’ After all, birds are native to Earth. It’s like calling a Pyjak a monkey when that is not true. They, Pyjaks and Monkeys, look similar, but are entirely different.”

Joker rolls his eyes, “Can we just completely mute this thing? Ruined my joke.” He grumbles, crossing his arms.

Luna giggled, “Nope, EDI is valuable to this crew. Suck it up, buttercup.” She teases.

“Thank you for seeing me as part of the crew Commander.”

She gets up and smiles, “No problem, EDI. I would admit I was scared to shit when Navi installed you on my ship, but you really have grown on me. So, Joker, how long till we get to planet Zorya?”

“Commander, Urgdot Wrex is still onboard. If you wish for the stability of Clan Urgnot, I would advise we wait for him to leave.” EDI interrupts.

Luna places her hands on her hips, “What? I thought the tour was over. Why is he still here?” She asks with annoyance.

EDI did not respond.

“EDI? What is Wrex doing on my ship?” She asks, panicking a little.

“I am afraid I cannot answer that question, Commander. Although, I have power on this ship. I am still able to be terminated by your sister if someone was to tell her to.”

Joker was confused, “Wait so you can die?”

“Yes. If that makes it easier for you to understand.”

Luna rubs her temples in annoyance, “Well, who told you they would make Navi terminate you if you do not answer the question?”

“I am afraid I cannot answer that question, Commander.”

Luna groans in annoyance, “Okay, it looks like I’m going to find himself!” She shouts, stomping away.

Joker snickers, “Good luck Looney!” He yells out.

After running around looking for Wrex, she decides to drink in the lounge; maybe she would find him while intoxicated. There was one room she didn’t check, but that couldn’t possibly be where he is right? Before Luna could panic about where Wrex might be, the door to the lounge opens up, and Tali greeted her.

“Hey,” She said to the Qurian. Tali nods and made her way to the bar to drink as well.

“Hello, Commander.”

“How's everything with you, Tali?” She askes, taking a small swing of her drink.

“Everything is alright, Commander. I was planning on watching ‘Fleet and Flotilla’ part two while I have a drink here.” Luna stops drinking and looks at the Qurian.

“Oh..my..god! You watch ‘Fleet and Flotilla’ as well?! I just watched the first one the other day, and I was planning on watching part two. It’s so good!” Noticing the surprise body language, Tali was giving off; Luna embarrassingly looks back at her drink, “I…I am sorry did not mean to get super excited like that.” She apologizes, still ashamed for acting in such a manner.

Tali looks at her shocked and claps her hands, “Please don’t be sorry I am excited to find someone interested in it as well! Oh, the romance, the music, and everything. It’s everything!” Tali squeals.

Luna squeals, along with her, “It is everything!” They start to sing and quote the movie to one another before finally turning on part two of ‘Fleet and Flotilla.’

As the movie plays, Luna decides she wants to get to know more about Tali, and so she turns with a smile.

“So Tali, what’s life like on the flotilla? And do you think they would sell us some seeds? Juniper has wanted to buy some for some time now. Kenn said yes, but he’s just one Qurian, and I am not so sure.”

“Life on the flotilla is nice, but it can be difficult. My father is an admiral and wants to bring us back to the homeworld…Kee’lah…It would be nice to go back there.” Tali sighs sadly, “I feel as though most of my time I am trying to live up to him and it’s….hard. I want my father to be proud of me, but sometimes I just can’t do it.” She whispers.

Luna touches her shoulder, “I understand how you feel. The way things ended with the Alliance, I wonder if my father hates me for losing the chance at becoming a good solider.” She bit her lips, “My father has passed away, so I have to ask my mother instead, but she tells me that my father would love me no matter what. It doesn’t change the fact I never lived up to his legacy and instead am an agent for the Shadow Broker.” She said, leaning back on the couch.

Tali was quiet for a moment before speaking, “That must be hard having your father die…I don’t think I would be able to handle the death of my father. My mother, I do hope she is happy where she is.”

Luna gave her a look of sympathy, “Your mother died?”

Tali nods, “Yes, it was when I was younger. It’s why if I lost my father as well, I don’t know Shepard, I do have my aunty Raan, but it’s not the same.” She sounded a bit happy, saying aunty Raan.

They were quiet now, still watching and enjoying the film when Tali giggles.

“I forgot to say I don’t think the flotilla would be opposed to selling you some seeds. I love the garden here, by the way, it is lovely.”

“Thanks! Juniper is amazing at what she does. I am delighted to have met her. Don’t tell Kenn, but I think she has a crush on him.” She grins.

Tali gasps, “Really? We should do something about that!”

“Hey, hey, calm down. I said, I think. She could very well like someone else or just prefer to be alone.” They laugh.

“Your right. Romance on the mind makes me crazy.”

“I know what you mean.”

After the movie, Tali went back to engineering while Luna decides to check on Garrus, wanting to see how he was doing. As she was leaving the lounge, she saw Wrex walking out her mother’s room on the ship, adjusting his armor, and alarm bells rang.

They look at each other, Luna, with a look of horror on her face and Wrex with indifference.

“What?” He asks.

“Why were you in my mother’s room? No one is allowed in there.” She tries not to sound too panicked, but she was panicking.

“Why do you think I was in there Shepard. Come on, your not an idiot.” He laughs, and Luna was stuttering in shock.

“I…you…but she…Krogan!” She sputters out.

He rolls his eyes, “Would you relax? We’ve done it plenty of times in the past; your mom can handle me just fine.” He laughs.

“B…but how?!” 

He stares at her, “Do you honestly want to know?” He asks, crossing his arms.

She shuts up, and a moment passes with Wrex leaning against the wall waiting for Laena to leave her room.

“How long? And…is this just sex or…?” He sighs and looks towards her mother’s door, wondering what’s taking her so long.

“It was a year after we met. You do the math. I joked about it a few times, and your mother was curious. ‘For science,’ she said, I laughed at her and said she likes me.” He chuckles, remembering their first time, “It started as sex, yes, but now it’s just for comfort and memories.” He said, shrugging.

Luna’s mind was trying to process everything, but she was still in a daze at this revelation. Opening her mouth to ask another question, Wrex cuts her off, knowing what she's going to ask.

“I have my clan to focus on, and your mother doesn’t want a relationship.” His face becomes serious, “We do care for each other, but we’re not in love with each other. So, don’t worry, kid, I’m not here to replace yah daddy.” He grins.

She rolls her eyes, “No one could replace my father.” She murmurs angrily.

He sighs, “Oh…I know.” He said quietly. When Laena walks out the door, she had something of Wrex’s in hand.

“Hey, Wrex, you for…Luna!” She gasps, looking nervous before biting her lips and shaking her head, glaring at Wrex, “I knew you should have waited a bit longer.” She quietly snaps at him.

He puts his hands up, “She was going to find out eventually Laena. Especially when you were all over me on Tuchanka.” He teases while chuckling, and she glares at him.

Laena turns back to Luna with a smile, “Look, Luna, Wrex, and I are…” She starts.

Luna puts her hands up, “Yes, I understand no need to worry.” She gave her a small smile, “You have your own life, mom didn’t think you would be with a Krogan, but here we are.”

Wrex grunts, “Hey, nothing wrong with Krogan. Sure there is a bit of adjusting, but a Human can handle a Krogan just fine. Although Laena is something else! The things she could do like-” 

“NO!” Both Shepards shout cutting him off as they look at Wrex, Laena, in embarrassment and Luna in horror, realizing he was ready to describe intimate details. 

Laena coughs, getting Luna’s attention, “I am sorry you had to find out like this. I wanted this to stay a secret, but it’s been a long time, and I couldn’t help myself.” She said, cracking her knuckles in nervousness, “And sadly became terrible at hiding it.” She whispers under her breath, becoming flustered at saying such things to her daughter. 

Luna was still surprised, but smiles and hugs her mother, “Like I said it’s your life I will not be the one to dictate it. It’s been twenty-one years since dad died. If you find comfort in the arms of...,” she looks Wrex up and down, “…Wrex, then so be it.” She said.

He laughs again, “I happen to be a great lover, and Laena can attest to that.” He grins. Laena rolls her eyes and looks Luna smiling.

“Thank you for understanding.”

“Should Navi know?”

“No, and you will not tell her,” Laena said, still smiling.

“But-”

Laena cuts her off, “And you will not tell her,” she stares into Luna’s eyes, which gave Luna a chill.

“Okay…stop staring at me like that. It’s Scaring me here.” Luna said, backing away from her mother.

As Luna was walking away towards the battery, she hears them whispering to each other. 

“Again?”

“Wrex…”

“One more time for old time's sake. Don’t know when we’ll see each other again.”

Laena giggles, “Fine, one last time.” And a door was heard opening and closing.

Luna shivers at what she heard, not yet comfortable with this knowledge, but her mom was happy, and she wasn’t going to complain.

Forcing a smile, she opens the battery door to find Garrus lying down with Urz next to him. His eyes were closed, and he seems to either be sleeping or just relaxing. Urz sees her and begins to wag his tail, happy to see her. Before he could bark, she places her finger on her lips. He tilts his head sideways, looking at her oddly, and she smiles.

Using her light steps, she made her way over to Garrus and smiled, touching his fringe. In his sleep, he starts to purr. She fought against her squeal and continues to rub softly. Urz starts to whimper quietly and uses his head to brush her thighs, begging for her to pet him. Luna giggles, pull her hand away from Garrus, and start to pet Urz on his head.

“You are so cute for a varren.” She whispers, trying not to wake Garrus.

After some more pets, she turns back to Garrus, who was still asleep. Feeling a little tired herself, she lays down next to him on his cot and curses at the fact it was not made for two people. When she was finally comfy, she smiles, finding herself laying with half her body on his, snuggling up to him.

“Comfy?” She heard, making her tense up. Slowly she looks up to see Garrus with his eyes closed before one eye opens up to look at her.

“I’m sorry if I woke you.” She whispers.

He chuckles, “When you are rubbing my fringe, it’s hard to stay asleep. Sad that you decided to pet Urz and stop rubbing me.” She giggles and reaches up to rub his delicate fringe again; he made the purring sound in response.

“You are so adorable! It’s like I’m petting Archangel,” she squeals.

He laughs, “Technically, you are petting Archangel, although, I hate to be compared to an animal so.” He jokes.

After his animal statement Luna starts to remember Joker’s joke from earlier and laughs uncontrollably, making the cot shake. 

Garrus looks at her, weirdly, “What?” He asks a bit confused. The joke wasn’t that funny. Right?

“N…nothing!” She covered her mouth, giggling and thought of a great idea, “Hey, can you turn off your translator? Don’t worry; I’m going to turn off mines as well.” She asks, wondering how Turians sound without it. Navi grew up with their language, so it didn’t count. Garrus, on the other hand, grew up on Palavan, which means he speaks their language.

He looks at her, confused, “Um…why?” He asks.

“Please?” She asks again, fluttering her eyelashes to get him to do it. 

He felt uncomfortable with her doing that, but shrugs and turns off his translator. She gave him a motion for him to talk. Luna waited; even if EDI told them they do not sound like birds, she was waiting for it!

“Luna?” She stills, “Are you okay?” He asks, worried by her expression. When she kept looking at him wide-eyed, he turns back on his translator. “Shepard? You okay?!” He said, panicking.

“How…do you sound even sexier in your native tongue?” She finally got out. He looks at her weirdly again and felt suddenly nervous.

Scratching his head, he chuckles, “I don’t know…I mean, I have never heard that before.” He said, looking away from her eyes.

“You need to teach me how to speak, Turian!” She fully climbs on top of him, straddling his waist, “Oh my God! At least so that I could understand! Hearing that deep sounding voice of yours. And the subvocal! Holy shit Garrus!” She shouts excitedly, which in response got Urz excited.

He was jumping and barking back and forth. Garrus was just stunned by how excited she was. It was only his native tongue. What's the point of learning it if they could just use the translator? He then starts to wonder how she would sound without a translator.

“Can I hear how you sound then?”

She looks at him weirdly, “I don’t have my translator on, Big Guy, you have the power.” She flirts.

He turns off his translator and asks her to speak with his eyes. Luna giggles because, for some reason, she was shy. Is this how he felt when she asked him to do it?

“Well?” He asks, and Luna bit her lips. She doesn’t know what the hell he said, but his sound was just amazing.

“I like you.” She said, stunning herself. His mandibles twitch in excitement.

“Can you speak again?” He asks, but she didn’t understand. When he gave her a gesture to speak again, she smiles warmly at him, and her mouth moves on its own.

“I like you.” She said again as her heart races and pounds in her chest.

Putting back on their translators, Garrus chuckles as his mandibles twitch again in happiness.

“I understand how you feel now. Hearing you speak in your native tongue was nice. You sound beautiful by the way, maybe I should learn Human.” As he talks, Luna was biting her lips still sitting on him.

 _‘I like you.’_ She shook her head from the thought.

“Hey Looney, Wrex left! Heading to Zorya now.” Joker calls out through the coms.

“Thanks, Joker.” She said while getting off of Garrus, who decides to sit up.

“Everything okay? I hope I didn’t sound offensive. All I asked is if you could speak again.” He said, worried by her quietness.

She smiles, “Yeah, everything is okay! Need to speak to Zaeed about this new mission.” She said, trying to mask the shock of realizing her feelings for the Turian.

“Change of plans? I thought we were heading to Novaria?” He questions.

“Yes, but I want to help Zaeed out. Zaeed is getting more agitated, and I don’t want him to fuck up the mission. The last thing I need is him not listening to my command and causing a lot of damage.”

“Alright, I’ll see if I can get into a contact of mine on Novaria.”

She nodded and was about to head out when she heard him call out to her. When she turns around, his mouth plates were on her lips. It wasn’t long before her mouth opens, allowing his tongue to dance with hers. His arms wrap around her waist tightly, squeezing her to him, and she moans.

_‘I like you.’_

She pulls away and smiles at him before quickly leaving the battery, shoving her feeling down. She couldn’t like Garrus! She was in love with Kaidan!

As Luna made her way to Zaeed, who sleeps in the former storage area in engineering, she could hear his voice again in her head. His native tongue…was something else and she just couldn’t believe how amazing he sounds. She was expecting Joker to be right.

Closing her eyes tightly, trying to calm her racing heart, she stood in the elevator, waiting for it to stop.

_‘I like you.’_

She groans, trying to push that thought away but ended up feeling his mouth on hers. His talons are rubbing on her skin, making her gasp in pain and pleasure. Her body felt hot, very hot. Great, nows she acting like a damn animal in heat! What is wrong with her?

Opening her eyes once the elevator stops, she made her way over to Zaeed. She saw him leaning on the wall listening to some low Jazz music. His room has a medium size bed, a desk with his old assault rifle, and another smaller desk with datapads, a mug, a radio playing the Jazz music, and a picture of a woman with tattoos holding a toddler smiling at the camera.

Luna looks at the lovely view of the shuttle bay, “nice view Zaeed.” She whistles, this causes him to open his eyes and look at her.

“Sure.” He didn’t say anything after.

Luna sat down on his desk chair, “Well, I plan on heading to where Vido is. Finally, pinpointed where he would be.” She smirks, seeing him now paying her attention.

“Good.” He growls.

She picks up the picture and stares. The woman in it was sticking her tongue out as she held the toddler in her arms. 

“Who are they?”

Zaeed didn’t say anything just stares at the photo in her hand sadly. “Doesn’t matter.” He grumbles, swallowing his emotions.

“I’m guessing Vido did something?” She asks without thinking now she wanted to slap herself for getting too personal with him.

Zaeed looks out towards the shuttle bay remembering ‘her’ touch, “He wanted to make sure I was wipe from history. The goddamn bastard shot me in the head and made sure no one knew who I was. It’s why no one knows I was one of the founders of the Blue Sons.”

Luna turns back to the photo and stares at them, “Did…did he kill them?” She whispers.

He didn’t say anything, but he turns to Luna before grunting, “Joesy was dead when I got back to them. Jennifer was gone, Vido took her. I rather believe she’s dead than alive as some goddamn slave.” He swore.

Luna winces at the word slave and stares at the little girl, “I’m guessing she’s Jennifer? If you want, I could ask the Shadow Broker if we could find her. He might have informat-”

He shook his head and cut her off, “No, it wouldn’t matter. Plus, she wouldn’t know who I am.” He whispers sadly.

Luna looks at him for a minute before nodding, respecting his decision, “No problem, I won’t ask anymore. I’ll make sure EDI informs you when we get to the planet.” She said before heading out the door.

“Thanks.” He quietly said.

***

When they landed on the planet, Luna turns back to Kenn, nodding at him.

“Thanks, Kenn, once the job is done I’ll make sure to call you.”

He nods, “Just make sure you ‘keep Tali safe,’ Navi said.” He laughs and heads back into his seat, flying off.

“Navi is starting to see you as a good friend,” Luna said, smiling at the Qurian.

Tali giggles and readies her shotgun, “I see her as a good friend as well. She is very hyper though keeps me on my feet.”

Zaeed taps into the Blue Suns' communications as they talked to one another while Garrus looks around with his sniper checking for anything that might be a problem. After some time, Luna signals for them to move out.

“How close are you getting into their communications, Zaeed?” She asks as they walk through the forest.

He grumbles, “Give me more time, and I’ll tell you.”

As they continue to walk the path to the refinery, they catch sight of a pile of dead bodies. Garrus sighs at the sight, annoyed by is seeing a pile of bodies again. It’s only been three days since Tuchanka, and the image of what happened was still fresh in his head. Encountering more bodies didn’t help at all, but at least the smell wasn’t as bad.

Luna starts to exam what happened to the bodies. Her best bet was experimenting because, for some reason, everyone wants to fucking experiment! But, when she notices the gunshot wound in the heads, she knew it was instead execution.

Tali gave a mini scream as a Pyjak ran by her feet. The little monkey looking animal was fast and small. Although they are not as tiny as a spider, Tali sure thought it was one.

“Got it,” Zaeed calls out to them, making them turn and look at him.

“What do you mean an unrecognizable shuttle came by here? I want you to find out exactly who the fuck landed here and kill them. If you fuckers don’t do the job, I will kill you myself for being a bunch of failures.”

Garrus rolls his eyes, “Sounds like a nice guy.” He said sarcastically.

Zaeed growls at the voice and starts to rush ahead. Luna narrowed her eyes at him and told the others to follow. It wasn’t long before they encountered some mercs.

“We have the surprise. On my signal.” Luna whispers. They all ready themselves, and once she shot, they shot with her.

Zaeed threw an inferno grenade at one of the mercs and used fortification to rush in with his shotgun. When one of the mercs got to close to his face, he used Carnage, making the merc scream in pain before dying.

Tali yells out for her attack drone to attack the mercs close to her as she hacks into their YMIR mech, causing it to turn on the mercs.

Garrus overloaded along with Luna since their shields were pretty sturdy, causing a little difficulty in bringing them down. She was eventually using her sword and did her signature move, electric slash, popping a few shields and killing one of the mercs.

“Urz, go for the on in the back!” Garrus calls out as the Varren rushes ahead and bite the throat of a merc bring him down.

When Luna saw a Blue Suns Heavy, she quickly uses her tactical cloak and rushes over to the merc. Before they could shoot at Urz, she slashes at the heavy.

It wasn’t long before all the mercs in the area were dead. Without saying a word, they follow Luna to the refinery.

“Fall back! Hurry and make sure that the bridge doesn’t work!”

They heard over the coms. Luna looks at her team, and they nod in understanding. They ran as fast as they could before the bridge was retracted but was too late.

“Goddamn it!” Zaeed swore. He was losing patience, and Luna saw.

“Hey, Garrus, you think you can get this working? I need to calm him down.” He nods at her and heads over to the controls.

“Fucking piece of Shit! I’ll rip his throat out!” Zaeed screams, kicking at the rocks.

She rushes over, touching his shoulder, “Zaeed! Calm down! Can’t have you lose it!” she shouts.

He pushes her away and points a finger in her face., “That piece of shit is going to die for what’s he done! For twenty years I’ve been waiting for this moment! Twenty years! I lost everything because of that bastard! My men, my life, my family!” He leans back, breathing heavily, “My daughter,” he whispers. Looking across the bridge, he glares, “He will die, and I will do anything it takes, even if I have to die trying.” He growls.

“And we will help you give him what that fucker deserves, but I’m going to need you to calm the fuck down.”

When the bridge got moving, they both turned to it. Zaeed was the first to go moving ahead of them. Luna sighs and signals for them to head out.

When they made it inside, the refinery Vido Santiago was waiting for them. He glares at the group.

“Who the fuck are you guys?!”

Zaeed smirks, “I thought I was getting old; it looks like I’m not the only one.” He growls. Vido squints before realizing who it was and broke out in laughter, staring at the old merc.

“Zaeed fucking Massani, how wonderful it is to see you.” He scornfully said.

Luna looks at Zaeed, worried about what he’s going to do.

“It’s ashamed Tristana didn’t kill you like she was supposed to. Luckily you killed her, or I would have had to do it myself.” He grins.

Zaeed glares at him, “If you think that would get to me. You’re sadly mistaken.” Zaeed said as calmly as possible.

Vido grin becomes malicious, “Is that so? Then I guess you wouldn’t care if I told you about your other bitch I killed. Of course, I had to show her what a real man was before doing so.” He chuckles as he shrugs.

Zaeed clutches his hand on his gun in anger, and Vido laughs, seeing this. Luna had to think of something quick before Zaeed lost it. She starts scanning the area, hoping to figure out what is the best plan.

“What was her name again?” Vido taps his chin.

Zaeed gave him a death stare, “Don’t you fucking say her name.” He growls.

Vido smiles, “Josephine, wasn’t it? She was a nice fuck. I see why you liked her so much.”

Zaeed screams and shoots at him. Luna’s eyes went wide, and she starts screaming out orders.

“Garrus, use your overload at the mercs! Tali hack into the stairs so we can get up there!” She turns to see Zaeed, who starts hitting at a valve, causing a chain reaction. “Zaeed! What the fuck!?” She screams.

Zaeed didn’t listen, as he could only see red, and he kept shooting at where Vido was. Tali looks at Luna with a panic shrug stating it’s impossible now. 

“We need to find a different way!” Tali yells out to her.

Angrily Luna pushes Zaeed into a wall using her biotics as the place was exploding around them.

“When I fucking say shoot, you shoot! When I say fucking stop, you stop! Look what the fuck you did?! There are innocent people here!” She barks at him.

He struggles against her powers, “I don’t give a goddamn rats ass! I want him dead!” He shouts out.

“And you will! It doesn’t mean you could fucking not follow my command! You caused my plan for you to kill that sonofabitch to fucking fail! Now I need to find a different way!” She screams as another explosion was heard. 

“Shepard, we don’t have time for this! We need to get out of here!” Garrus yells out, and they escape the area.

Taking a longer way to get to Vido, they made it to a platform. After dealing with the guards there, they made their way to a door when a civilian runs out screaming.

“Please, you need to help us! The place is on fire!”

Luna looks at him determined; she was ruthless, yes, but to her enemies, not innocent people, “Where?!” She yells out to him.

Zaeed growls, “I’m not fucking letting that goddamn piece of shit go! He’s going to pay for whats he has done, and I don’t care if you help me or not!” He screams and runs off.

“Zaeed!” Luna yells she turns back to the scared worker and bit her lip. Innocent lives are essential, but Zaeed was her friend.

“I’ll go after him! You take care of the workers!” Garrus yells already, getting ready to run after the old man.

“Okay! Just…just be careful!” She said, a little worried.

He turns back to her and chuckles, “So you do care for me. Are you going to admit you have fallen deeply in love with this handsome Turian,” he teases.

_‘I like you.’_

Luna’s face grew hot, and goosebumps appear her body as she remembers what she said to Garrus when he couldn’t understand made her want to scream in embarrassment. 

_‘I Love Kaidan!’_

She screams at herself before shoving her feelings down and forcing herself to wink at Garrus, “I care about Urz! Don’t make him get hurt!” She said with a smile on her face.

Garrus winks back and grins, “Let’s go, Urz, we need to save a Human!” Garrus runs off with Urz barking at him.

Luna turns back to the worker and nods at him. When they got to the first valve, she looks at Tali.

“Watch my back!” She calls out and starts to turn.

“Don’t worry, Shepard; I have your back! Chiktikka, go get em, girl!” Tali yells at her attack drone, which flies off to one of the mercs shocking him to death. Before another merc can shoot at Luna, she uses her shotgun at him.

After dealing with one valve, she gets to the other.

Once all the valves were taken care of, they made their way to the injured workers. Luna frowns, seeing how some of them have burns on their bodies, but at least they weren’t dead.

“How’s everyone?” She asks, and the worker from earlier smiles at her tears running down his face.

“We’re alive, thank you so much.” He looks around sadden, “This refinery was our life. We don’t have any place to go.”

Luna sighs and nods, “I can help you get off this rock. I know of a place that could use good workers. Just stay safe, okay? Once I deal with the Blue Suns in this area, we’re leaving.” She said softly, a smile on her face to assure him. He smiles and nods, heading back to the wounded.

Tali looks at her, “I was a bit scared of you when I first saw you, but you are a very compassionate person Shepard.” She said.

Luna turns to her with a smile, “I grew up as a slave Tali. Even if they didn’t suffer like me, I know they were abused and mistreated just to get the work done. You saw the bodies,” she sighs, closing her eyes before looking back at the workers, “They executed them. And for what? Because they weren’t doing their jobs? Digesting assholes.”

“I didn’t know you grew up as a slave Shepard. I am sorry you had to experience that.” Tali said.

“It’s how I can eat dextro and levo. Anyway, I’ll tell you more later. Let’s get to Garrus and Zaeed. Starting to get worried for Urz.” She smiles, and they head out.

They made their way past all the dead bodies of the Blue Suns and one YMIR mech. Reaching outside, they saw Zaeed choking Vido, who was struggling to breathe.

“Where.Is.She!?” Zaeed growls.

Luna rushes over to Garrus, “What’s going on? I thought he would have killed him already.” She asks, crossing her arms.

Garrus put down his sniper and turn to Luna, “Vido said he knows where his daughter is.” He replies lazily.

“He won’t get an answer if he chokes him out.” She shook her head and walked over to Zaeed. Touching his shoulder, he looks at her.

“What?!”

“You won’t get any answers this way. My mother knows how to get people to talk, let her deal with him.”

Zaeed looks down at the beaten and heavy breathing Vido. He grins and whispers, “Laena is going to make you talk.”

***

It was a few hours after capturing Vido, and Luna was reading data while sending reports of the workers to Anderson in the information room.

“EDI, how are the works accommodating in the shuttle bay?”

“They are healing well, Commander. Garner made sure they are well fed as well.”

Luna nods and pulls away from the screen and cracks her neck, “And Vido?”

“Your mother wishes to speak to you and Zaeed once you are finished with your reports.”

Heading down to the life support room, she made sure to tell Zaeed to meet her there. Exiting the elevator, Luna saw her mother walking out of the girl's bathroom with a bored look on her face.

“Well, good to see you are here. I got Vido to talk. He told me he sold her to Cerberus for a good chunk of credits. The facility he sold her to was on Pragia.”

“We need to go there now,” Zaeed growls, catching the last part of what Laena said.

Luna rolls her eyes, “I need to find more information about this place before I just rush the ship there, Zaeed.” She said, sighing.

“Fuck information. Who knows what the hell they are doing to her,” he said, punching the wall as he looks at the two Shepards.

Laena coughs, gaining their attention, “I said ‘was’ on Pragia, as in the facility is no longer available anymore. It was destroyed, and many of the scientists fled. As for the children that were brought there, many of them died Zaeed, and there is a good chance she was one of them.” She said sadly.

“No.” He clutches his fist.

“How did you find this out, mom? Vido?”

“No, I looked into Pragia, and there was an article about it. Then I asked EDI to look at any information stored from the information room, and she informs me this was destroyed. Although it did not name Cerberus, I found that out from Vido.” She states calmly.

“I can send you the information, Commander,” EDI said.

“Do it,” Luna replies, before looking at her Omni-tool reading the data. There were bits about Cerberus and Pragia, but there was one thing that stuck out.

“There was a girl who was the center of the project. Subject Zero. Said she escaped, and her location is unknown as she doesn’t remain in one place for too long.” She reads out.

Clicking away at the information, Zaeed looks at the life support room Vido is in wanting to kill him. Rage filled him as he thought about his daughter, and realizing she’s dead didn’t sit well with him.

“Looks like she did a massive amount of damage to a Cerberus facility that was,” She sighs and glares at her Omni-tool “Experimenting on young biotics. Honestly, what the fuck? Just what the fuck? Why?!” She growls 

Laena touches her shoulder, calming her down, “Luna, whatever happened at the facility can be looked at later.” She said softly

Luna sighs, looking back at the Omni-tool, “Very strong biotic, and,” her eyes grew wide, “Holy shit! She was captured and sent to Purgatory! That place? Great.” She rolls her eyes.

“What she look like?” Zaeed asks, “If we find her, we could ask where Jennifer is.”

Luna shows him the photo, “She is full of tattoos. It gives me a headache, to be honest.” She gasps as he grabs her arm, bringing the photo to his face, “Zaeed, what the fuck?”

“I know those eyes! This is Jennifer!” He shouts as Luna pushes him off.

“That’s her? That’s Jennifer?” She was in a state of shock, from the photo on Zaeed desk she looks completely different.

“How do you know for sure?” Laena asks.

“I’ll never forget my daughter's face, and she has her mother’s eyes.” He grumbles, still looking at Luna’s arm, hoping to see the picture again, “She looks…not right…but that’s her. We need to get her Shepard.” He said determinedly.

Luna sighs, “God, I hate that place. They’ve been trying to capture me for years now.” She thinks for a moment, “Maybe we could use that information for leverage to get inside, would need Garrus’ help.” She ponders.

“Uh Luna, you have an incoming call from Kasumi, and it doesn’t sound good.” Joker calls out.

Luna’s eyes went wide and started to run to the elevator.

“What do you want to do with Vido?” Her mother calls out, worried herself for Kasumi.

“Whatever you want! He’s not my issue anymore.”

Laena turns to Zaeed and nods to him, “ This way shall we?”

Once she got to the QEC, she answers Kasumi.

“Shep!? Is that you!?” She sounds out of breath, and there was gunfire.

“Are you okay, Kasumi?! What’s going on?!” Luna asks, panicking as the audio was distorted, “Clean this up EDI,” she commanded.

“I’ll do my best.”

“....” Another shot, “I….fucked up here Luna!…eed y…r help!”

“Where are you?! What did you do?!”

“…und Keiji’s Gr…box! I…I wan…ck Luna, and I have help!”

Luna looks shocked, hearing her old friend's name, “Keiji’s Greybox? But how?” She questions as more gunshots were heard.

“Donovan Hock!” A loud bang was heard.

“Kasumi!?”

“Shit…sor…ok I…sed up Shep! I need help getti…ut of her….My friend and I are holding as best…can!” Another bang, “Jacob!”

“Kasumi, I need to know where you are!?” Luna was bitting her fingers now, especially after hearing the name Donovan Hock. If only Kasumi waited for her, they could have done this together.

“Bekenstein! W…nstein!” The gunfire was still loud, but she heard Kasumi’s quiet voice, “Oh…no.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, as you could tell Zaeed and Jack are father and daughter. I always headcanon this for my own fun and was a bit scared to write about it, but it's like why not? Their backstories haven't changed much at all, I just connect the two. 
> 
> Laena and Wrex were more something I wanted to joke about to have Luna freak out to, then it became an actually relationship in my head and I was a bit surprised I liked it? Is it biologically impossible? Hell if I know, but if we're already breaking some rules of Mass Effect why the hell not. Not like I am throwing every rule out the window, I do a lot of research when writing this.
> 
> Hope these background subplots aren't a deal-breaker, but I understand if it's not your cup of tea.


	17. Kasumi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When it comes to the people Luna loves, she's very protective of them and will do anything to protect them; but this time she made a huge mistake.

Garrus was watching her bite her finger. She bit her fingers so hard they were bleeding, but that didn’t stop her from continuing to bite them. Not about to take it anymore, he grabs her hand and gave her a reassuring look trying to calm her down.

Luna took a deep breath, but couldn’t stop herself from worrying. She is scared for Kasumi as she wonders what the hell happened. Giving him a look he nods and understands; he didn’t back away, instead he presses his head on her.

Zaeed kept his eyes closed with his arms crossed. He’s on edge, but not because of Kasumi. He wanted, no, needed to go to purgatory to get his daughter back, and the more he thinks about it the more upset he was getting.

They were in the shuttle flying towards Donavan Hock’s summer home hoping to save Kasumi. Luna finally stops biting her finger and leans back closing her eyes.

“How did you two meet?” Garrus asks as he wanted to understand the dynamic of the two.

Luna sighs and looks down, “I met her when she was twelve. I was fifteen at the time.” She starts.

***

She couldn’t be any older than twelve. Even if she was small, scrawny, and lack proper nutrition; Luna could tell, after all, she looked like that before, maybe a bit worse. Her hair was black and short and her eyes were empty. The bruises on her body told the whole story and Luna hated it.

“Hey, what’s your name?” She asks softly not trying to scare the girl. The girl didn’t look at her just kept biting at her nails and fingers. Luna bit her lips and wondered how she could help.

“My name is Lunaria Shepard.” Maybe if she introduces herself the girl will offer up her name. When she didn’t say anything Luna was stumped and decided to just read some article about the Asari figure. There was a bit of curiosity, but she decided not really her thing.

Luna looked back at the girl who was now looking at her. She gave her a small smile and waved at her, but the girl bit her lips and started to play with her fingers again.

She starts to remember the time she arrived at Omega and how scared she was of everyone, everything. Both she and her mother were skinny to the bones, malnourished, and was in very bad shape; if it wasn’t for Dr.Mordin they would have been dead. It took her a while to trust the doctor, but he was patient with her.

“Your mom is here a lot, but this is the first time I’ve seen you.” When the girl didn’t say anything Luna smiled again before turning back to her article. Now it’s talking about Turians and how they evolved. Looking at the Turian body was odd and a bit exciting. They were so different from others from how they look. It was weird but in a good way. 

_"I wonder what the sex would be like...Their talons are pretty sharp,"_ She stares at the image as her imagination ran wild.

“K…Kasumi.” She whispers, and Luna blinks away at the images in her head and looked at the girl with an open mouth.

Realizing she was now staring like an idiot, Luna coughs and smiles, “Hi Kasumi. Nice to meet you.” She said, a bit too excited, and she mentally slaps herself for doing so.

Before Kasumi could say anything her mother and Dr.Shepard walks out of the room. Kasumi’s mother was just as thin as she was with black circles around her eyes. Luna was amazed by her mother’s work on cleaning her up when she first walked in here Kasumi’s mother was horribly beaten.

Dr.Shepard smiles warmly at her, “Alright Ms.Goto please stay safe. If you need help again I am here for you. Also, be mindful of the cast.”

Ms.Goto bows and whispers a thank you before taking Kasumi’s hand and walking away.

Not even a week later they were back, but this time Luna had something for Kasumi. With a smile on her face, she walks over to Kasumi and gives her a purple and black bracelet.

“I saw this the other day and thought about you. Would you like to have it?” Luna asked and Kasumi looks at it for a moment before tears fell from her eyes.

“T-thank you,” she whimpered and Luna smiled at her.

Taking her hand and placing the bracelet on it, “I used to be hurt to by horrible people. When I came here I felt extremely alone. When you look at this bracelet just know I’m there for you no matter what.” Kasumi stared at it and smile as more tears fell down her face.

“Okay,” she whispered.

Luna smiled, “Hey, why don’t we N7 swear?” She asked almost in tears thinking of her deceased father.

Kasumi gave her a confused look, “N7 swear?”

“Yeah, I Lunaria Shepard N7 swear to always protect you, Kasumi.” She said a grin forming on her lips.

Without a second thought, Kasumi jumped up and hugged her tight hiding her sobs. Luna smiled wiping her tears away before hugging Kasumi back.

A month later as Luna slept a banging was heard coming from their front door. She got up tired and looked at the clock noting it was 3:45 am; she groaned in annoyance.

When there was more banging it caused Navi to start crying from her mother’s room. Walking out she saw her mother trying to hush the two-year-old toddler while glaring at the noise. Her mother’s eyes were black ready to kill, after all, this was Omega and it could easily be one of the gang members looking for ‘rent’.

“Lu…Lunaria!?” A tiny voice calls out and this made Luna gasp, it was Kasumi!

Rushing to the door she opens up to see her looking paler than usual with blood running down her nose and bruised lips. Her left eye was swollen shut and her body looked hurt and exhausted. She was trembling while holding her hand with the bracelet.

“What’s going on?” Her mother asked before looking down at the young girl, “Kasumi? What happened?” Navi was finally asleep again, but Kasumi was shaking in her battered clothes.

“Oka-san…help! Please…!” She begs.

Dr.Shepard nods and hands Navi over to Luna before leaving the apartment with her nightclothes on not caring who saw her.

Before Kasumi could run toward Laena, Luna grabs her hand.

“Come inside and let’s clean you up? Don’t worry…your Oka-san will be okay.” Saying that word wasn’t too hard, but Luna knows she butchered it. Kasumi understood and followed her inside.

With Navi asleep in her crib; Luna joined Kasumi in a bath. They were silent as Luna lightly brushed Kasumi’s bruised back. It wasn’t until Kasumi started to cry that Luna begins to cry as well. She didn’t live Kasumi’s life, but she was also abused and knew the feeling.

Wrapping her arms around the young girl, and placing her head on her shoulder; they cried together.

After their bath, they laid on Luna’s bed looking at the ceiling together. Kasumi brings her arms up and starts playing with her bracelet. Luna reaches up and touches the bracelet.

“I’m glad you like it,” she whispers and smiles before frowning, “I’m sorry I wasn’t there to protect you.” She said touching Kasumi’s face.

Closing her healthy eye, she smiles at Luna and snuggles up to her not saying a word. Luna kisses her cheek and held her close as she glared into the darkness.

“I swear to you Kasumi I will always protect you.”

When her mother came back she was bloody and needed a bath. When the two girls woke up to question the doctor she simply looked at Kasumi sadly.

“You will be staying with us from now on Kasumi. Your…father,” she growls, “Will never hurt you again.”

“Oka-san…” Kasumi didn’t ask, she knew already.

“Was a good woman who made a mistake,” She touches her cheek, “She would want you to be safe and happy. I could give you that.” Looking her in the eyes Kasumi nods sadly.

“Okay…” Luna hugs her tightly as the doctor walks out of the room to feed Navi.

***

“She’s always safe! But ever since Keiji died, she’s been looking for multiple ways to get back what Hock stole, Keiji’s Greybox. I…couldn’t help her. The Shadow Broker and Hock are business partners so unless Hock betrays the Shadow Broker, I…couldn’t do a damn thing.” She glares at the floor.

“You can’t blame yourself for what other people do,” Garrus said almost laughs at the irony since he, blames himself for Sindonis betrayal.

“Easier said than done Garrus.” She grumbles.

“Were here Commander, and it doesn’t look too good,” Kenn calls out.

The three stood up and the door opens up. Outside the platform was so many dead bodies’ scatters around. Luna took a deep breath and tried not to panic as they jumped off the shuttle. Kenn was on standby as the three of them look around.

It was night time and the place was dark so using the flashlight was critical to navigating the area. Using her pistol’s flashlight, Luna checks to see if she could find her. Garrus gave Urz the okay to see if he finds anything of interest.

“Looks like Eclipse was working under him,” Zaeed said under his breath while kicking a Salarian dead body.

“EDI can you scan the area to see if anyone is alive? I need answers.”

“Yes, Commander.”

As EDI scans there was movement and they went into hiding. Luna glares clutching her pistol tightly while feeling her emotions getting out of control. Garrus looks at her for a moment and touched her back.

“You need to calm down Shepard,” he whispers and Zaeed grumbles.

“Now you see how I feel. Calming the fuck down doesn’t change the fact they have her friend. Or that my daughter is stuck on goddamn Purgatory. A place run by the Blue Suns, which this place is known for selling their criminals into slavery.”

Garrus glares at him, “We’ll get your daughter back. No need to add fuel to the fire.” He growls at Zaeed who didn’t care.

“Who's there?!” They heard the mercs yell out.

Luna took a deep breath, Garrus was right she needs to calm down or she’ll end up making irrational decisions.

As the mercs got closer, she grabs one of them and pulls them down onto the floor before stabbing him in the neck. The other merc went to shoot, but Garrus punches him in the face causing him to stagger backward.

Without a second thought, Garrus uses his Omni-blade and stabbed the merc in the gut causing him to fall to the ground bleeding out.

It wasn’t long before a loud blaring sound was heard and they looked around in alarm. Multiple mercs suddenly came out of the house and into the area they were in. Once the gunshots start, Luna rolls into cover as Garrus threw a grenade at a few unexpected mercs then hid undercover as well.

Urz was still a bit far away from Garrus but seeing his master in trouble push him to grab onto the neck of a merc. Zaeed uses fortify and rush forward angry he was still here and not on purgatory.

Garrus looks up to see them trying to shoot at his companion and he glares taking out his sniper and sniping at the assholes. Luna went invisible and starts to run around the battlefield slashing at mercs while dashing into cover to use her sniper whenever her tactical cloak needs a cool down.

“Boss says to fall back!” A merc yells out rushing away before getting sniped in the head by Garrus.

Luna slashes at another person before realizing they were running away, but why?

It wasn’t long before she got an answer as she heard a gunship. When she turns around she gasps as it starts to shoot at her.

“Shepard!” Garrus yells out and before he could do anything, Luna uses a biotic barrier to shield herself from the bullets.

“Shepard huh? Heard you are close to Ms.Goto. It’s too bad she wouldn’t give me the information I needed.” Donovan Hock gloats.

Luna growls as she starts to shoot at the gunship, “Where is she!?” She screams as she kept shooting at the ship.

“She is where she belongs!” He yells back shooting at her.

Her barrier suddenly went away and she ran to the side dodging the gunfire. Garrus was busy analyzing the ship and realizing how strong it shields are.

“Shepard, we need to take the shields out! Our overload won’t cut it we need something stronger!” He yells to her as her back was against the crates.

Luna nods quickly trying to figure something out when she grabs her sword. No, the electric slash won’t be about to reach the ship as it was in the air the ability could only go so far. But. If she was able to maneuver her way to the ship she could be able to disable the damn shields.

“I’m going to need you to watch my six, Garrus!”

He didn’t know what she was going to do, but he nods at her and shoots at the gunship. Zaeed makes his way over to Urz and Garrus.

“What’s the plan?!” He yells and Garrus points to Luna.

“Watch her six!”

_“I swear to you Kasumi I will always protect you.”_

Luna closes her eyes and took a deep breath as this was dangerous, but she promised Kasumi she would protect her and she will.

Running to a corner she made her way to the crates and starts to climb. Garrus uses an ability to gains Hock’s attention away from Shepard and it worked as the gunship shot at him.

“Stay down boy!” He yells to Urz who listened.

Luna finally reached the top of the crates and begins to run across a beam towards Hock. He finally spots her and prepares to shoot at her when she jumps in the air. Luna’s heart was beating out of her chest; she was scared as fuck since if this doesn’t work, it’s a far drop to her death.

Garrus' eyes went wide as he couldn’t breathe or scream watching Luna do this. It was both impressive and incredibly stupid!

“Has she gone goddamn mental?” Zaeed gasps trying to come up with words to tell Laena her daughter was a damn fool who killed herself.

Dropping onto the ship Luna always cried in pain and fear as the worst part was over.

Hock looks at her and glares, “She should have stayed away, and now she's fucked!” He yells.

Luna growls grabbing her sword as the ship was now spinning wildly trying to get her to drop her, but her armor had a sticky coating to it.

“Where is she!?” She yells.

Hock grins, “Do you really think I would tell you?” He laughs before making the ship dip. Knowing the sticky coating won’t last for all she uses her sword to stab into the ship, almost stabbing Hock in the face.

“What the fuck!” He yells moving away from the blade.

Luna grins before pulling it back out and stabbing one more time. She could hear the ship’s VI calling for an evacuation. Looking around her she realized she was fucked. That’s when she heard a psst sound and saw Hock evacuate with his seat.

“Fuck you and your whore!” He yells as he floats off somewhere near his estate.

She did not plan this through, “Fuck!” She screams breathing hard before looking down, big mistake.

Seeing the ground was not something she was happy about, and even if there are trees there is no way she would be able to survive.

“Commander!” She heard Kenn yell out to her. Looking over to the shuttle she gasps, “Jump!” He yells again and she does.

Everything was moving slow and she was afraid she wouldn’t make it, when her fingertips hit the shuttle she knew she didn’t and closes her eyes knowing she was going to die.

Until she felt a hand grab hers.

Looking up she saw Garrus looking down at her as he held her hand and reaches for her arm.

“Gottcha.” He said pulling her up as she gulps and grabs onto him for support.

Once inside the shuttle, she kisses Garrus on the lips hard as the doors close behind her, and Garrus, a bit surprised, kisses her back just as hard. Pulling away she was breathing hard and shaking as he held her.

“T…thanks. I thought I was going to die.” She stutters still in shock.

He hugs her tightly, “I would never let that happen,” he whispers in her ears, “this is the part you admit you love me.” He jokes, but inside he hopes for it to be true.

Luna laughs, “Still trying to make me say it huh Big Guy?” She grins.

He shrugs hiding his disappointment, “You know one day it’s going happen and when it does,” he looks her in the eyes, “I’ll make sure to punish you for waiting so long to tell me,” He huskily said and she felt her face heat up.

Biting her lips she remembers where they are and looks around noticing Zaeed wasn’t with them.

“Where is Zaeed?”

“I told him to stay and see if he could catch Hock. I called Kenn up to pick me up as we could save you as you were being a stabby, stabby, lady.”

“Stabby, stabby lady? What?” She asks in confusion.

Garrus laughs, “It’s what Navi likes to call you.” He laughs harder at her eye roll.

When they arrived at Zaeed they saw him standing with Urz holding the Varren back from attacking Hock.

Hock was sitting down holding his side and glaring at him.

Right now they were inside a very luxurious area of the house coupled with an outside area for leisure. A full view of the city from afar with a large fountain inside the home. Multiple paintings on each side of the house.

Walking over to him, clutching her mouth in anger, she punches him in the face.

“Where is Kasumi?” She growls at him.

“You will never know,” he laughs and she kicks him in the balls losing her patience.

A cough was heard, “Kasumi.” Said a tired voice. They scan the area trying to find where the voice location.

“K-Kasumi”, the voice calls out again and Luna looks up to see a man who was tied up and hanging from the ceiling. He has dark skin, similar to Laena, short black hair, and only had his underwear on, clearly to humiliate him. His body was beaten pretty badly as blood poured from his injuries.

“K-Kasumi,” He said again coughing.

Garrus stops staring at the poor man and quickly went to work trying to find where the beginning of the rope is to cut him down.

“What the fuck did you do?” She gasps at Hock who laughs looking at his handy work.

“Just wanted to get her to talk. She seems to really like this one, just like that last one. Too bad all he knows is her damn name. It's pathetic to love a woman, they are all toys aft-” His head blew up before he could finish his sentence as Zaeed used a shotgun to his face glaring.

“Goddamn Bastard.” He growls as he walks away before Luna could berate him.

Wanting to reprimand him for killing the only source to Kasumi, she was going to yell, when the guy tied up grunts as Garrus tugs at the rope.

Sighing she places her focus on the guy, “Garrus can you stand under him?” Luna said, whatever Garrus got up his sleeve was going to take too long.

He nods understanding what she’s going to do. Taking her sniper she aims and shot the rope causing him to fall right into Garrus’ arms.

Placing him down Garrus starts to apply medi-gel on him. Luna walks over and watches him breathe heavily. Once he was stable enough she bends to his level.

“How do you know Kasumi?” She demands looking at him.

“Wh...o are you?” He gasps.

“I am Lunaria Shepard.” She said looking at him.

His eyes were closed and he was breathing hard, “Sh…she gave me this.” His hand went into one of his pockets and took out the bracelet she gave Kasumi as a kid. Luna grabs it and stops herself from crying. “Said yo….u would understand.” He whispers.

Looking back at him she nods, “Then you must be Jacob? The one she called out to during coms?”

He coughs, “Jacob Tay…lor,” he gasps.

“Garrus could you carry him? He needs medical attention,” She didn’t ask it was more like a command.

Not saying a word Garrus helps Jacob up grabbed his arm and starts to guide me to the exit.

Jacob groans, “They took her to Purgatory,” he gasps out to them. Luna stops and looks at him with shock.

“What?”

“Y-yes…said they need information from her. Kasumi...was resilient and did not give them an answer.” He groans, “I know where she hid it.”

“Hid what?” Luna asks.

“Kaiju’s Greybox.” He said shaking from the cold as he limps along with Garrus’ help.

When they finally made it to the landing Garrus puts him on the shuttle and Jacob groans again, but lays there.

Luna looks at him, “Where is the Greybox?” She asks.

He turns to her, “Look for the Golden Saren statue. There is a code to place in it.” He shifts almost embarrassed, “type in JaSumi,” he said as he cringes.

“JaSumi?” Luna asks eyes wide.

He rolls his eyes, “She wanted to get under my skin after I told her this was a bad idea.” He shook his head, “It’s a combo of our names.” He whispers while facepalming.

Not wanting to wait anymore Luna walks back inside when she spots the Golden Saren statue.

“Hate to see a statue of him, not someone you want to look up to,” Garrus said behind her, "Although, it was given to a criminal so it makes sense." He shrugs.

Luna looks at him weirdly, “Why isn't he someone to look up to? Isn't he a Spectre?” she asks.

Garrus looks at her, “You don’t know how he does things?” He asks.

She shook her head, “No not really.” She said narrowing her eyes at the statue.

“I thought you are a great Shadow Broker agent.” He chuckles.

“I don’t know everything you know.” She grumbles.

“He does some pretty horrific shit. Doesn’t matter how innocent you are if you have information for him he would get it from you. Ruthless and calculating is what he is.”

“I understand why it’s needed,” she sighs looking down, “even I had to hurt innocent people to get what I needed. I do try not to though.” She said.

Garrus sighs, “At least you’re not cold-hearted Shepard. I believe he was the reason there isn't a first Human Spectre.” He said thinking if he was correct. "Although, could also be the Council not wanting a Human Spectre." He shrugs in disapproval. "I could be very wrong here, Shepard, but looking into him made me realize there is a good chance he played things into his favor."

Luna stares at him before looking shocked, “Uncle Anderson?” She gasps.

His brow plates raised, “What?”

“That’s what uncle Anderson was complaining about when I was younger,” She sighs, “I forgot because it’s been so long. He and my father were going to be chosen, but they got fucked over by a Turian.” She glares at the statue.

“My father hates Humans, but I could confidently say he hates Saren more.” He glares at the statue as well, “He is disgusted to have Saren represent our race, and was a huge reason he was against me becoming a Spectre at first.” He said, "I would like to think I made him proud knowing I am somewhat different from Saren."

After putting in the passcode they were able to receive the Greybox and left the estate.

***

Inside the Normandy Luna, Garrus, Zaeed, and her mother were in the information room. They were trying to figure out a plan on how to get Kasumi from Purgatory.

“We could always use me as bait. Get me inside by having Garrus ‘capture’ me and send me there. Once inside we’re going to need to maybe cause some trouble? Going to the security room to open all cells. Lots of criminals end up there by Spectre’s so it could work. Just need someone to get into the security room as I am led to a cell.” Luna puts forth.

“No.” Her mother said angrily.

“It’s the best plan we got, mom. We don’t have time to sit here and think of a better way. We don’t have an army to fight. And I talked to the Shadow Broker, he doesn’t care about Kasumi so he won’t help.” Luna whines, they have been here for over an hour and it’s been plan after plan after plan.

The closer they get the more time was lost on them. Doesn’t help they need to find a way to get Jennifer out for Zaeed.

“I agree with your mother, Shepard, this plan is too risky,” Garrus said as his head was hurting from thinking up different ideas and having them not work.

Luna groans at him finally losing her patience, “We need to be risky! Don’t worry about me, I’m Infiltrator! Its how I get many of my jobs done!” She shouts at him; she didn’t want to yell, but Kasumi is just a top priority.

“I am, but to willingly give yourself up!? It’s stupid! Stop going based on your emotions!” He shouts back. Now he was losing his patience and his head felt like it was going to explode at any moment.

“You’re one to talk!” She yells.

They were glaring at each other ready to fight back and forth for what they believe in when Joker intervene.

“Well, you guys need to decide quickly because we’re here.”

They look at each other, and Laena walks out not able to think anymore. Her daughter was as stubborn as she is. Sometimes, she wishes John was here, he would know what to do in this situation.

“We’re going with my idea since we are out of time. Any more questions?” Luna asks the two men. Garrus was still trying to figure something out anything out. Maybe if they had more time! He sighs giving up as he begrudgingly shook his head no. Zaeed didn’t say anything as his mind was only set on Jennifer. When they didn’t say anything she walks out.

***

Luna was biting her finger again as she thought about Kasumi. She wonders what the hell they were doing to her. How are they getting their information from her?

Purgatory always puts her on edge thinking back to the time she was captured and was being transported here. Warden Kuril wasn’t too happy having her escape though. The asshole has been obsessed with getting her back.

When Garrus enters the air dock he has the ‘handcuffs’ ready for her, and he wasn’t too happy about this at all.

“I still think this is a bad idea.” He whispers cuffing her hands.

“I would do anything to save Kasumi.” She growls. Not trying to be mean to Garrus, but she promised Kasumi. Thinking of her dad and how he N7 swear he would love her always made her want to cry. N7 swear is sacred in her family ever since their tragedy and she is going to honor the swears she makes no matter what.

“I could tell.” He grumbles, “What if it doesn’t work Shepard?” He asks worried, he wants her to be happy, seeing her like this pains him a little. If it was his father or sister, he would be just as upset; but she’s going about this the wrong way.

“As long as you follow the plan, everything would work out fine Garrus. There might be a bit of a hick-up but nothing too bad. Spectres are well respected here and the Warden will kiss your Turian ass, which means you can and will gain access to the security room. Give them what they want and they will give you what you want. Just a means to an end.” She said coldly not recognizing her tone.

He kept his mouth shut for a moment, “Is that all I am to you? Just some Spectre to get what you want from?” He said bitterly, he didn’t mean to ask but his insecurities are biting at him.

She looks forward, “Yes, you're a means to an end, Garrus rather you like it or not. Just like I am a means to an end for you. After all don’t you want Maelon?” She asks coldly, her mind only on saving Kasumi.

Garrus didn’t say anything, but inside he was devastated. He can hear her laughing, dancing, crying, flirting, and singing all at once in his head. He saw her on top of him talking human; a sweet tune to his ear. He can feel deep inside of her as he connects to her on a physical level. The head touch, the kissing, and the mark.

_‘Worthless.’_

_‘How does it feel to know you are not important?’_

_‘Now you are Iika.’_

_‘Idiot, you really thought she wants you?!’_

_‘You are a waste of air.’_

_‘Just kill yourself already.’_

Swallowing his pain and hurt he looks forward. Once Zaeed enters ready they made their way to Purgatory.

Inside Purgatory they were met with multiple Blue Suns guards. Zaeed glares at all of them ready to shot any of them that cause a problem.

“So it’s true. You captured the great Lunaria Shepard.” Warden Kuril walks into the area his mandibles twice.

“Warden Kuril so nice to see you again.” Luna winks at him and he glares at her.

“I have a special spot for you, my dear. I’ll make good use of you.” He growls looking in her eyes before looking towards Garrus, “I am indebted to you Spectre. If there is anything you need, besides credits, of course, I can provide.”

“And here I thought I would have to be the one to give you credits.”

Kuril laughs, “Spectre this is Lunaria Shepard we are talking about here. She’s very well known in the criminal world, and it’s…a pleasure to finally have her here,” he saw her neck and noticed, “A Turian mark? Bonded or a Slave? Judging from the fact you are Lunaria Shepard, I would say bonded.” He laughs and Garrus tenses.

“Doesn’t matter, he’s dead to me.” She said with no emotions and she couldn’t believe she just said that. Her face looks pain for a moment as her heart broke at saying such a horrible thing. Looking down in shame she bit her lips.

_“Garrus, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to say that!”_

She wanted to say to him as she felt heavy with regret. Her obsession with saving Kasumi was making her lose her senses.

_‘I like you’_

She almost gasps at remembering the three words she said to him when their translators were off. How her heart was racing as she realized how important he was to her. How happy she was to have him save her from death. How much they connected physically and mentally. How much she…likes him.

And she just said, he was dead to her.

Turning her head slightly to the right she looks at him pleading.

_“Garrus you matter so much to me please, please don’t listen to me!”_

Garrus' eyes didn’t look at her but he was starting to fall to despair each time she denounces him.

_‘Just kill yourself!’_

_‘Waste you are a waste!’_

_‘She doesn’t care about you!’_

_‘Nobody cares about you!’_

Luna saw his eyes and knew exactly what he was thinking. Knowing that he was listening to his demons bring him down, and it was all her fault.

_“No, Garrus, please! I’m sorry!”_

Kuril chuckles, “Is that so? Then I guess you won’t mind if I take it off of you?” His mandibles twitch in glee, “Claim you as my own.” He purrs in happiness.

Luna glares at him, “Fuck you!” She shouts.

Kuril walks over to her and grabs her face in his hands, “I’m going to have fun breaking you,” he whispers.

Luna glares at him, but inside she was screaming in fear. This was not part of the plan! This was not a small hick-up she told Garrus earlier. This was bad!

They walked passed the airlock area to a fork in the station one leading to the offices of this place another to the prisons. Warden Kuril points as Garrus silently holds Luna.

“Take her to the surgery room, I want that mark off her.” He looks at Garrus, “As for you, Spectre follow me I have much to discuss with you.”

Luna tried to run as she hears surgery. Garrus held her though and when the guards came for her, he gave her away without hesitation.

“Garrus!” She screams looking back at him scared, but his face was indifferent. It’s as if time had slowed and all that was there was them. Luna’s heart was beating so slow she thought she was going to die, looking at Garrus’ face made her want to die.

“Did she just call you Garrus?” Kuril asks.

Garrus turns to the Warden, “That is my name, Warden.” He looks forward, “Doesn’t matter she’s dead to me.” He said coldly as they walk away.

Luna’s entire heart stopped as tears fell from her eyes.

“I’m sorry!” She calls out, but he didn’t listen. He was walking further and further away.

_‘I like you’_

They pulled her away as she kept calling out to him and saying she was sorry. It wasn’t until she looks around her, she could hear the screams of the prisoners or the Human slaves? Wait, it’s the prisoners! NO! Human slaves! Prisoners! It’s Prisoners.

Then why was the room bloody and dark with Human remains on the ground? Why was she on the Batarian ship again?!

As they dragged her along she was screaming and trying to pull away. Surgery. Surgery! No, she couldn’t do it! Not again.

“Mommy!” She screams feeling as if she was twelve again back on that ship; back to being a slave.

“Mom!” She yells knowing she is older now. Knowing that she is on the prison ship and she needs to get the hell away. Surgery! The Mark!

_‘She’s dead to me’_

More tears fell from her eyes as the world kept changing and warping around her. Each step reminded her of the time she was led to the room of pain, she calls it as a child, where they would inject that weird red liquid inside of her.

The walls of the prison would suddenly become dirty and dark full of blood, again. The floor would have the corpses of the Human slaves the Batarians would leave. The smell was the worst. Death and decay are all she could smell. Then the taste. She was hungry again begging for the taste of human flesh.

“Mommy!” Her voice was higher pitch as if she was twelve again.

The walls would then change back to the prison where there are inmates in cells catcalling her as she fought against her captures. The somewhat clean ship lacks the death and decay of the slaver's ship.

“Mom!” She calls out her voice back to normal. All this changing of reality was making her crazy! She was losing it. But she couldn't have Surgery! Not Surgery!

“Shut up!” The Batarian Guard yells, punching her in the head and she was immediately back to being twelve again.

“I’m sorry Master I’m sorry, please! Please don’t hurt me! I’ll be good!” She begs in a high pitch voice, again, sounding like she was her young self again.

“What the fuck?” The female Blue Sons guard asks and she was back to being Lunaria again.

“Let me the fuck go!” She screams but they overpowered her.

“This Human is crazy. We need to hurry up and get her sedated.” The Batarian said.

“Mommy help! Mommy!” She calls again in her high pitch voice.

When they got the surgery room they got her on the bed and she was still screaming for her ‘mommy’ or ‘mom’. Everything was building up in her ready to burst.

She starts to remember the Hot. Pain that would build within her body before it explodes. The doctor took out a needle and Luna’s mind went black.

Hot

Pain

She lets out a loud scream.

***

“Garrus!” He wanted to hold her when she screams his name. He asked her to trust him and she said she would. What does he do?

“Did she just call you Garrus?” Kuril asks.

Garrus turns to the Warden, “That is my name, Warden.” He looks forward, “Doesn’t matter she’s dead to me.” He said coldly as they walked away.

_‘She’s dead to me’_

How could he say that? It pained him to even say something like that, but he was hurt. Pain and heartache crept into his body and claimed him. When she said he was dead to her everything died right there. She was wrong! He had the right to say it back, right? So why does it hurt to say it back?

“I’m sorry!”

He should turn around and save her. Fight anyone who gets in his way of **his** mate.

“Garrus! I’m sorry!”

He clutches his hand and kept walking hoping the Warden didn’t think much of her sorries. He had to fight himself from turning around to save her.

_“Take her to the surgery room, I want that mark off her.”_

That is what the Warden said; the Warden wanted **his** mark off her. That was **his** mate! How dare he!?

Garrus fought not to growl and shoot the Warden in his head at what he said. All he could feel is rage at someone thinking they could claim **his** mate!

_‘He’s dead to me’_

Garrus’ mind stops and remembers her words, and how much it pains him to hear it. But she said sorry? Does that mean she didn't mean it?

_"You're a means to an end, Garrus"_

How could she say that? He thought maybe, just maybe, she was starting to actually have feelings for him.

_‘She said you are dead to her!’_

_‘No one will love you!’_

_‘Worthless!’_

He closes his eyes to stop the taunts. The demons. But, spirits, they were so damn loud. Garrus decided to focus on the Warden. Noting the Warden is a barefaced Turian, there is a good chance he will betray him.

“Have you been to Purgatory before Spectre?” The Warden asks.

“Can’t say I have Warden,” Garrus replies.

“Well let me give you a rundown.” They stop for a moment and the Warden starts to explain, “This place, this facility, is made to hold the toughest, ruthless, bastards in the galaxy.” He points to the prison wings, “This is the maximum-security wing each pod is a self-contained cell that can be ejected if necessary.”

“So if someone gets out of hand you space them?” Garrus asks crossing his arms.

The Warden’s mandible twitch, “Yes, and they know that I will not hesitate to do so.”

“How do you know Lunaria Shepard? Seems she was a pain in the ass for you?”

“She was, she escaped after stealing some valuable information from me. I’ve been trying to catch her for years now. To have her here is…exhilarating.” He growls in almost pleasure and Garrus almost lost it.

“Why is that?” He asks slowly trying to give himself away.

“There is something about her that makes me want to claim her. Animalistic maybe? Knowing she was already claimed by someone else annoys me, but doesn’t matter once that mark is removed she will be my slave.”

Garrus clutches his teeth, “Wouldn’t you want to sell her?”

“At first yes, after many years she has gained an impressive reputation, but why should I sell her when she would be fun to break.” He sounded so confident, so happy. Garrus wanted to rip his throat out.

Zaeed gave a grunt making his presence known. This made Garrus look at him understanding why he did that.

“Do you know of Subject Zero?”

The Warden stops walking, “Jack? Why? Do you want to purchase her?” He asks.

Garrus coughs, “Yes, since I am giving you Luna,” he pauses, “Lunaria, I wanted to see about Jack.”

“Jack is, how I should put it, unstable Spectre. If you want to have her just be cautious. She was a dangerous one to get under control. I had to Cryo her.”

Zaeed glares, “You did what?!” He snarls.

“You should calm your attack Human.” The Warden growls looking at Zaeed narrowing his eyes, “Do I know you?” He asks and Zaeed was going to tell him the truth when Garrus intervene.

“Don’t worry he will behave,” Garrus glares at Zaeed begging him to stop, “You were talking about Jack?”

Kuril stares at Zaeed some more, “Yes, I will give you her for a lower price of course since you did bring me, Shepard.” He said bringing his attention back to Garrus.

When they got to a room it was only occupied by a doctor typing away at his console. He looks over and nods to the Warden.

“How is Jack?”

“She is stable Warden” The doctor replies.

“Good, prepare her for processing. Our Spectre friend here will be taking her off our hands. Provided he pays the full amount of course.” He said looking at Garrus who nods.

Zaeed looks through the glass hoping to see her, “I would like to stay here. As a partner of the Spectre, I want to make sure he’s not getting used here.” He said not paying them attention.

“I could assure you we value our customers, and especially Spectres.”

Garrus saw Zaeed's eyes, “I want him here just to make sure. I’ve been betrayed before I prefer not to be betrayed again.” He narrows his eyes.

_‘He’s dead to me’_

The Warden stares at them clearly annoyed, “If that is what you wish fine, but it’s going to cost extra.”

Garrus crosses his arm, “Don’t worry I’ll make sure to pay.” He almost growls but contains it.

Leaving Zaeed, they made their way to the Wardens Office, and pass by the security office. Garrus made note of where it is as they pass.

Grunting sounds were heard and Garrus turns to see a Human guard standing there.

“What’s going on in there?” Garrus asks as he heard a loud thud.

The Human didn’t say anything, but the Warden places his hand on his shoulder

“Don’t worry about that Spectre. Just a prisoner being put in her…place.” The Warden says with a bored tone.

Garrus stares back at the door and frowns, “What did she do?”

“She has information for a client is all. You understand how important information is right, Spectre? I’m sure you had to rough up a few criminals to gain information. This wouldn’t be any different.”

_‘Kasumi?’_

He kept staring at the door before being led away by the Warden. Once inside the Office Garrus stood there as the Warden turned his back to him. He was going to take out his pistol when a loud scream was heard.

Garrus knows the scream. At least he thinks he does. The scream was…more…deeper? A chill went down his body once another scream was heard. For some reason, he was stuck in place trying to calm his racing hard.

He is afraid.

There was a lot of pain in the scream and he wonders if he was the cause.

“Luna,” he whispers full of worry.

_‘My mate’_

“What the spirits is that?!” Garrus turns to the scared Warden and glares at him.

“Something you won’t be able to control or contain.” Taking his pistol out to shoot the Warden, but the Warden was quick and kicked his hand causing the pistol to go flying.

As they fought to gain the upper hand another scream was heard and we’re tossed around the room. Garrus picks himself up wide-eyed.

 _‘How can she move the ship?’_ He panics.

Before he or the Warden could move, another scream of pain vibrated in the halls, and it was as if gravity stop working as they float in the air before dropping to the ground. The Warden groans and starts to panic as he was trapped by his desk.

“Spectre help me!” He yells out and Garrus looks at him and glares.

“Fuck you.” He replies and before he could shoot another scream causes Garrus to stop paying attention to the Warden and rush outside.

He needs to get to Luna.

When he left the office he was greeted by broken glass and a dead guards likely killed by the multiple glasses within their body.

A door opens up and a Turian comes out in a panic and turns to see Garrus. Before he could shoot Garrus shot him dead. He walks towards the door and opens it to reveal a woman chained to the wall.

“What? Scared of a little scream?” She looks up and grins. She stops when she notices that’s not the same Turian, this one has markings.

Garrus stares at her noting the bruises, talons marks, blood, and lack of clothes. He knew what they did and she could tell he knew.

Looking away she sighs, “You better get off this ship if you don’t want to die. That scream…it’s her and she’s not going to stop unless her mom calms her down.”

“I know.” He said quietly. He notices she was trembling, maybe from the cold, or from what happened to her.

Grabbing some clothes off the dead Human he grabs the key and unchains her. She didn’t say a word as she puts on the clothes.

“Are yo-” He begins.

“No, but right now…I don’t want to talk about it nor is it the time. You know Shep, which means, you must be Garrus Vakarian?” She asks cutting him off.

“Yes, we came here to save you.”

She laughs, “And she got her ass in this pickle. Nothing is ever simple with her huh?” She laughs again, but Garrus can tell she was holding back tears, “She always needs to do everything and everything to save me huh?” She sniffs, “Stop being so cocky, Kasumi! Your confidence is going to bite you in the ass, Kasumi! I’ll…always be there for you, Kasumi,” she whispers closing her eyes.

Another scream was heard causing them to hold onto the table in the room.

Garrus touches her shoulder causing her to tense he lets go immediately, “Sorry, didn’t mean to do that, but we need to go she needs…you.” He said sadly.

Kasumi looks at him weirdly at his tone, but decided he was right, “Let’s go shall we?” They headed out the room and before they ran off Kasumi shot the Turian a few times. Garrus looks at her.

“How come you’re not having an allergic reaction? Were you a slave like Shepard and Dr.Shepard?” he asks.

She laughs and smirks spitting on the dead Turian, “Oh no! They gave me some meds before they….,” she took in a breath, “They didn’t want me to die before they got the information. Let’s leave it at that.” She said quietly and with that, they ran off.

A loud bang was heard.

“What the hell was that?” Kasumi asked knowing it wasn’t Luna.

“Jack has escaped! Quickly Contain her! And kill that fucking Monster!” They heard the Warden over the coms.

“That fucking asshole is going to pay for calling her that.” Kasumi whispers pissed, “Come on Garrus let’s go join the party!”

“Sectors Seven, Nine, and Eleven have lost life support. No survivors.” Said the Ship Computer.


	18. Banshee

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Screaming, {REDACTED}, Screaming, {REDACTED}

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: Graphic Depictions of blood, gore, and cannibalism. I know I tagged it, but I feel like I should still warn people. -Shrugs-
> 
> "Talking" - Luna
> 
> " **Talking** " - Banshee Luna
> 
> "Tal **king** " - Mix of Luna and Banshee Luna
> 
> Just to clarify as you read.

_She stares at her mother’s arm sadden to see the marks on it. She wanted to say sorry, but she couldn’t speak; her voice was gone._

_At the moment they were sickly and will likely die if they don’t get treatment as they hid in a cargo bay of a ship heading to Omega._

_She shakes._

_She opens her mouth to talk, but only air came out and she coughs after breathing in too fast. Her mother gently places her hand on her mouth and shushes her quietly. She looks down sad again that her voice was gone, all she wanted to do was say sorry for hurting her._

_Suddenly she couldn’t breathe. She was shaking and was trying to take a breath! When she saw her mother's eyes looking at her with sadness and tears; she knew she was going to die, and it was her mother’s doing._

_“I’m so…sorry my little moon. I…I can’t watch you suffer anymore.” She whispers as she kept covering her nose and mouth. Tears were in her eyes now, she didn’t want to die._

_She kept shaking her head from side to side to tell her mother no; she wants to live. More tears fell from her mother as her vision was going dark._

_‘Mommy, please.’_

_Was all she thought as she felt herself drift._

_Suddenly, she took a huge breath and trembles when staring at her sobbing mother in fear._

_“I…I am weak…I…John.” Her mother sobs._

_It wasn’t long until they were discovered, and was kicked out on Omega. They didn’t know where to go and she still couldn’t speak._

_Looking at her mother, she notices the shock and fear within her eyes._

_Hungry_

_She was very hungry and wish to eat. Her mother looks at her and notices the look when they pass by a Human female who was drunk. They shouldn’t do it. They weren’t slaves anymore, but they were hungry and they know how starvation feels._

_Silently they followed the woman, she was alone and it seems she would stay alone. When she turns a corner, they turn the same corner. As she walks the block, they walk the block._

_Eventually, they made it into an alleyway and watch her fall onto the dirty pavement groaning in pain, this gave them the opportunity to walk over to her. She spins around on her back and giggles while looking at them._

_Her mother covers the woman's mouth and stabs her in the throat with as much strength as possible. It appears the woman was high or maybe there was something else because she wasn’t even fighting back. As she watches her mother stab this random woman, she bit her finger and starts to salivate at the flesh that she would consume._

_When the woman stopped breathing her mother sat there staring at the body. They both didn’t move. Their stomach grumbles. Not soon enough, her mother took the knife and stabbed it into the woman's stomach, cutting a piece of her flesh off, and giving it to her._

_She bit into the hard, salty flesh, and chewed as much as possible, making sure it was soft enough to digest into her small tummy. She didn't want to admit it, but it was fulfilling. She didn't mean to moan in happiness it just happened, she swears. Her mother stares at her a bit scared and sad, but she also ate her own piece of flesh and fought against herself from enjoying the taste of another human._

_They cut and ate at the flesh of the woman and as much as she should hate this, she couldn’t stop herself from the enjoyment of eating this delicious human. Looking at her mother's face, that was in pure pleasure, made her realize how much she was enjoying it too._

_Their entire front was bloody as they continue to cut away at the woman's flesh, eating piece by piece making sure to fill themself with the energy they need after using so much of their powers on the Batarian ship._

_Her mother reaches over to her with a small smile, and silently pushes a hair out of her face and whipped some blood off her cheek as they chew the flesh of the woman. It was meaningless, but a small gesture to show her, how much she cares about her._

_Leaning into her mother's touch, she forgave her mother for trying to kill her. There was no ulterior motive, her mother simply didn’t want to watch her suffer. Plus, it wasn’t as if she could run away from the very person who can take care of her anyway._

_As she swallows another piece of the woman's body, she could only hope that her mother would never try to kill her again._

_After cleaning themselves and gaining more strength to move about on Omega, they made it to a busier area of the station they heard whispers of a crazy Salarian and a clinic he runs. Her mother whispers to her that they need to go there if they want to be healed. She still couldn’t speak, so she nods and follows her mother._

_Once there they saw a line of sick people, and realized, it’s going to take a long time before they were seen by the doctor._

_It was hours later and they were asleep, maybe they would be dead by morning? Her mother lets out a groan as she was woken up to see who wants her. It was the Salarian doctor._

_Her mother was the first to get the shot of medication and some medi-gel for her wounds. It was scary seeing the needle sink into her hips. The doctor told them they will need to do this every day for a while and she wasn’t happy about it._

_She hates needles_

_When it was her turn she was sobbing and gasping for air as she tries to run away. Her mother sings her a song quietly and it calms her. She was so distracted by the song she never noticed the needle being pushed inside of her._

***

_Luna has her eyes closed trying to concentrate. But the pain in her body was getting worse. Everything was burning and she couldn’t take it anymore; she screams._

_“Luna you need to learn how to accept it. I know this power isn't natural, but it's within us rather you like it or not, It is us and us it.” Her mother said sitting down cross-legged._

_Luna sighs, “I’m trying mom it’s not that easy. Every time I try, everything hurts and my body is on fire.” She growls._

_“You must go through the pain to find the peace within you my love. Sometimes suffering is needed. You are strong. You are capable.”_

_“Would you shut up about the peaceful bullshit!?” She screams, making her mother look at her quietly. Although there was a burst of power from her, Laena did not move an inch._

_Laena frowns, “Finding peace within yourself is important to overcome the pain.” She said._

_“Always about peace! Everything about peace! Maybe peace isn’t for me!” Her eyes were black again. She was so sick of this stupid training her mother is teaching her. Meditation isn’t for everyone and she will always hate herself. She will always be this thing!_

_“You are not allowing yourself to heal from the past. I know what the Batarians did will never go away. Mordin and I tried Luna, it’s just not possible. The only thing you can do is to accept yourself. Allow yourself to face the fact you will always be different.” She calmly said._

_Tears begin to fall from her eyes, “How can you be so calm!?” She sobs, “It’s unfair! It’s so unfair how calm you are. Dad is dead! I will never be normal ever again! All because you wanted to fucking experiment on Turians! Because of you, we are cursed! Because of you, some fucked up god or goddess cursed us! I hate you!” Standing up she ran away._

_Laena sat there with her eyes closed as tears fell._

_After yelling at her mother, Luna was on her way to the markets. At least she could find something to do there. It wasn’t long before she can sense someone following her. Rolling her eyes she decided to do something her mentor taught her. She wasn’t too good at the skill, but she could do it._

_With a bit of time, she was able to use the shadows to hide. She saw it was an Asari that was looking around wondering where the hell she went._

_“Who the hell are you and what do you want?”_

_The Asari jumps, “Fuck! So you’re the freak!”_

_Luna glares, taking a deep breath, “Would you fuck off, please? I’m not really in the mood to deal with people's shit today.” She growls before turning around and walking away._

_“Aww come on don’t get all pissy at me. I’m not the one who's the freak here.” She teases following her._

_Luna ignores her and decides to walk faster away from the Asari before she explodes in rage._

_“So, what is a freak like you doing on Omega? Do you kill people or something? I heard rumors you eat people.” This made her stop in her tracks._

_“Would you fuck off? Why the hell do you keep following me!?” She was breathing heavily while tears were threatening to fall, but she held it in._

_“Because I want to know if the rumors are true. Do you kill people? Do you eat people?”_

_“Where the hell did you hear that from?!” She was going to explode she could feel it. Who?…no…not him….please…not him._

_“Ethan told us.” She laughs, “To think he really did it! He felt sorry for you so he actually went out with you!” She laughs harder trying to steady herself, “And you gave it up to him! ‘Ethan, It’s my first time’,” She mocks with a glint in her eyes._

_Not trying to entertain her anymore, Luna starts to run away, heartbroken and in pain._

_‘Hold it in’_

_‘Hold it in’_

_‘Hold it in!’_

_She kept repeating the saying over and over trying to contain her powers._

_“Come on, Ethan said, if I say these things you would become a freak!” She rolls her eyes, “So boring.”_

_“You want to see a freak?” She growls stopping in her tracks and turning around to the Asari; her eyes fully black._

_“By the Goddesses, you really do have black eyes like an Asari! To think a freak like yourself really do exist!” She grins in happiness watching this ‘freak’ on display. Luna felt like a circus act something to be looked at and pointed to as the crowd cheers and laughs at her._

_She screams directly to the Asari bitch letting her anger and rage out. The Asari stops laughing and looks at her shocked._

_“Hot…hot! HOT!” She screams and before she knew it her body explodes. No trace of her body anyway just blue blood splattered everywhere from the walls to the ground where the Asari stood._

_Luna stood there shaking after killing the Asari, and she starts to scream._

***

After screaming, she begins to walks the halls on the ship slowly, each step causes the metal to creek and bend. Her eyes were as black as the abyss and her nails were sharper than a Turian’s talons ripping the metal walls like it was paper.

Her heart was racing, beating so fast as if it was on its own battlefield shooting away at anyone who comes near. She starts to remember the smiles on the Batarians' faces as they kept injecting her with the red liquid.

“ **Mommy** ,” she calls out using her high pitch younger voice. In her mind, she was young again begging for her mother as the Batarians experimented on her.

One of the Blue Suns mercs whimpers behind a crate holding his pistol for dear life. Shakily, he looks over to see her standing there staring off to space. When she turns towards the whimpering, he gasps and tries to hide hoping she didn’t hear or see him.

Two other mercs came into view with their guns staring at the ‘woman’. With their guns raised, they start to shoot. As they continued to try to get the woman under control their thermal clips, eventually, became empty.

They stood there staring at her as she slowly tilts her head towards them looking right at them.

Chills went down their spines as she stood there looking at them. Until she screams. One of the mercs screams back and soon after his head explodes in front of the other’s view. This caused the other to fall to the ground pissing himself in fright.

When he looks back at the woman, in fear, he watches as she raises her hand and sends a warp his way. He starts to quickly crawl backward before using his momentum to get up and run from the blue, red orb.

When it hits his backs, it starts burning him alive as he screams. The warp burns right through him and he stands still. His body was left with a hole between his upper chest and the beginning of his lower body. The now-dead merc’s organs begin to drop to the ground bit by bit as the body stood there unmoving. There was a pool of blood forming under the body's feet as it drops to the ground, knees first, then upper body.

The merc behind the crate watches in horror and starts to beg for his life in his mind.

“ **Mommy**.” She calls out again in her high pitch child-like voice. Her head slowly turns to his location.

“Please,” he begs quietly.

“ **Mommy**?” She asks as she starts to blink step toward his location in a zig-zag formation. He knew, if he stays there, he’s going to die, so he gets up and starts to run. Looking behind him he watches her blink towards him

“ **Mommy**.” She says again and it starts to make him freak out. He feels as if he’s been running for hours, but that’s not the case. When he reaches a dead end he drops to his knees and sobs.

“No,” he cries, “God, no!” He screams.

“ **You’re not Mommy**.” She whispers in his ears and he slowly turns his head to the side shaking. All he saw was black eyes staring at him. Before her mouth opens wide as her jaw unhinges and a scream slowly erupts from her mouth.

He starts to scream as his body heats up. Everything was burning and his ears were ringing. The pressure from her loud scream was getting to him. Nothing was instant he suffered from the sound and the feeling. Bloody tears ran down his eyes as he begs forgiveness for everything he’s done in his life. As he stares into her widen mouth he felt as if he was being sucked into the void, and then his head popped.

There was a loud bang that caught her attention. This bang came with an impressive amount of power.

“ **Mommy**?” She wonders as she makes her way to the power. No. This was something else, but it was strong and she wants to kill it. She needed to kill it. This power could kill her so to stay alive she needs to kill it!

As she walks, the halls kept cracking and shifting under her foot. Her body was in pain, killing itself from within, but she didn’t care. She needs to kill it before that power kills her.

Suddenly she was distracted by gunfire directed towards her. Trying to hurt her! Trying to control her! For so many years she has suffered and now it feels good to feel this power take control of her body.

A sick grin appears on her face.

How good it feels to be this powerful as the men and women of this station scream in horror as their bodies explode from her sonic scream. She would blink at them slowly with each step making sure to give them time to run. She was the predator and they were her prey.

It was easy grabbing their throats and ripping their spine from their body as they scream in pain dead. Sometimes she would use a singularity causing the bodies to pick up and rip apart as they float around her tiny little black/blue ball of death.

She giggles, but a loud bang again took her out of her fun.

That power again.

The power she needs to kill before it kills her.

Growling she turns away from a Turian on his ass shaking. When he got up to run she screams turning back to him and this scream causes him to fly forward at a heightened velocity. He screams the entire way and ends up splatting against the wall.

“ **Mommy** ,” she says creepily again as she walks towards where the power was.

“ **Mommy** ,” she calls out again a smile on her face as she saw a few mercs run away. She wanted that power gone, but it was so fun to kill these fucking people.

They all deserve it.

They all deserve it!

They were going to rip her apart again. Change the very essence of her core! She could never be Human because of them! They all deserve to die for what they have done to her body.

She didn’t ask for it.

She didn’t want it.

But they took her body and violated it for their own ambitions. She deserves retribution for what they have done!

She screams

As she blinks towards them again each step getting closer and closer to the mercs.

“Fuck! She coming after us!” One yells.

“How is she so fast and slow at the same time!” Another shouts.

She screams causing them to fly forward. Not enough to kill, but enough to make them trip over each other.

“Get up! Get up!” The first one scream.

Before they could run again she grabs one by the throat and squeezes. The merc gasps for help as she squeezes his throat before using her sharp nails and driving it into his body. He took in a sharp intake of breath as he bled out from the stab. The last thing he saw was a smiling Luna as his head pops off his body. Satisfied with her kill, she then slowly turns towards the other merc who was crying, begging for her not to kill them.

“ **Mommy**?” She asks and the merc sobs.

“Yes! Yes, I am your mommy! Now…leave me alone!” The female merc whimpers, hoping this would work.

She didn’t like that very much, " **You're not my Mommy** ," she growls while biotically picking up the merc, forcing her into a T-pose, and begins to pull on each side.

The merc screams, “No! No! Please! No-” and she pulls, hard, ripping the merc’s body in half as blood sprayed all around while the guts landed in multiple places. Flinging the two halves away, she gives a shit-eating grin looking at her handy work.

“Luna!” She turns around to see him.

Tilting her head slightly, she begins to wonder who would call her by her name. As she kept staring at him, the feeling of love and happiness begins to fill her body as memories played within her head.

Luna’s heart starts to race quickly, “Garrus?” She whispers.

He looks around for a moment and tries to push the image away. All the blood and guts laying around, it was nightmare-inducing.

Taking a breath he looks at her, “Y-yes…it’s me, Luna. Let’s go home, I found Kasumi. You don’t have to kill anymore. I’m sorry…I’m so sorry for saying the things I did. You matter so much to me.” He said, looking at her hoping she would go back to herself. He doesn’t care for how…monstrous she looks right now, he knows this isn’t her.

 _‘Come back to me, Luna’_ He thought.

“Matter?” She whispers.

When she said that his heart sank, he knew what she is remembering. 

_‘Doesn’t matter. She’s dead to me’_

_"No! That…that isn’t true!"_ He thought.

He wanted to punch himself for being an idiot! That isn’t what he wants her to remember! She matters a lot to him, she isn’t ‘dead’ to him. He hasn’t felt like this for a long time after Mayre; he knew Luna is special to him, but if sh-

“ **Garrus**!” She screams in pain causing him to fly backward, bringing him out of his thoughts. Kasumi pops up next to him after using her tactical cloak.

“Holy shit what the hell did you say to her?” She asks in a panic watching her friend change from happy to piss in a few seconds.

He groans, “Earlier, I said she’s dead to me. That she doesn’t matter. It was petty of me, but I was so hurt after she said that I didn’t matter, that I was dead too her.” He said sadly looking at the now walking woman.

“There is a good chance she didn’t mean it! Did you not fucking think, ‘I need to convince these people he isn’t on my side’, damn it, Garrus!” Kasumi shouts in anger, of course, another fucking asshole in her life would hurt her!

“ **Garrus**!” She screams again in pain.

Garrus can feel it and coughs as the sound was burning his body from the inside. Kasumi saw him cough up blood. The scream wasn’t directed around it was only at Garrus! She was trying to kill him!

Not wanting the Spectre to die Kasumi tries to pull him up, “Come on Vakarian. We need to get you out of here before she kills you!”

He can feel her despair, “Let me die here by her hands. I deserve it for breaking her trust.” He said quietly.

Kasumi looks to see Luna walking slowly towards them; she could tell Luna was fighting the urge to kill him. Seeing this change in Luna scared her, she was used to the time when Luna would have a burst of anger, but this was different.

Her body was skin and bones. Her fingernails have become long claws at this point. Her eyes were dark and sunken in, hair has completely fallen off, lips were black as tar; and although she has clothes on, it was torn in multiple places.

The blackness of her eyes was something Kasumi was akin to. It wasn’t the first time she’s seen it, but it was the first time she realized how terrifying it was.

Kasumi felt petrified as Luna walks towards them, towards Garrus. She fought and willed herself to move.

“Garrus, please! We need to move! She doesn’t want to kill you!” She yells trying to get this idiot moving

“You said it yourself, there is a good chance she didn’t mean to say those things. I failed her. I failed…them. I deserve to die. Let her kill me.” He was sinking into his own despair not knowing how to find a way out. As always he’s the reason the people he cares most about, suffer.

“ **Garrus**!” Luna screams still fighting herself from ripping him apart.

“Stop being selfish and look at her! She doesn’t want to hurt you!” Kasumi yells pointing towards the slow-moving woman.

“Selfish?” Garrus asks looking towards the ground.

“You just want a damn excuse to die without saying ‘oops I killed myself’. You want her to go through the pain of killing you!” Kasumi shouts feeling her voice becoming hoarse, screaming, and talking loud isn’t really her thing.

“That’s…no,” he looks at Luna. She was still walking towards them but was painfully slow. She was fighting against it.

“ **Garrus**!” She screams.

“We need to go!” Kasumi shouts.

Getting up Garrus push through the pain and ran away from Luna.

“ **Garrus**!”

They were now running for dear life as Luna biotic blink towards them stopping a few times to scream.

Garrus pants, “We need to find the Normandy and get Dr. Shepard here!”

“Ya think!?” Kasumi shouts, “Look I understand the whole ‘I said something stupid to piss her off’, but this is fucking different! Luna would never get this mad! If anything, I never thought this would happen! Did something happen to trigger this?!” She asks.

Garrus thought for a moment.

_“I am terrified of surgery, it’s a huge trigger for me.”_

It clicked, “She’s my bondmate! We marked each other three and a half years ago and, the Warden saw it, and he decided to get it removed!” He growls in anger.

“She’s your mate?” She turns in shocks, “Wait removed? Removed how?!” She screams.

“Surgery!” He shouts as they turn a corner.

“Shep hates, hates surgery! That’s why she fucking lost it. I bet they even had fucking Batarians right in the room with her!”

“Wouldn’t surprise me! Blue Suns are pretty heavy with Batarians!”

They turn another corner, believing they were far enough they start to rest a bit trying to catch their breath.

Kasumi pants, “I never thought this is how I was going to get out of here. I pictured myself killing that disgusting alien for raping me, then taking his armor and…and,” She closed her eyes holding in a sob.

Garrus looks at her, “I’m sorry I didn’t stop it sooner.” He said, feeling guilty.

She looks at him confused, “What do you mean?”

“I heard loud banging sounds from the room you were in, but I was with the Warden at the time and needed access to his room; and so, I…I walked away.” He saw hurt in her eyes.

Looking away from him Kasumi gasps, “I can’t believe my first time with a Turian would be like this…I feel so dirty.” She sobs holding her body tightly.

“I…hope you don’t hate us. We are not like that.” He quietly begs.

Kasumi closes her lips and stares at him, “No, I don’t hate Turians. If I did I wouldn’t have helped you back there. It’s going to take some time to be around you alone though. Hope you don’t mind.” She whispers.

He nods and stood up straight. Kasumi sighs leaning against the wall.

“I miss the times I would steal her panties to sell on the externate, she would get so mad at me that she stole my desserts for the whole week,” Kasumi whispers chuckling at the memory.

“I remember a time when I was chasing her, she found a way to hack into my visor and sent a lot of nudes of Humans, and most were male genitalia. I was not amused.” He said trying not to laugh at the memory.

Kasumi laughs, “I taught her that one! I was always the better one at hacking. I can’t believe she used that on you.” She grins.

“So you created that program? I was just surprised she was able to do that. My visor is state of the art. For her to hack it was amazing. Or should I say you’re pretty amazing for creating that program.” He said.

Kasumi blushes and covers one cheek with her palm while shooing him with the other, “Oh I know I am amazing. Keep praising me and I might tell you how the hack work.” She giggles.

“Gar **rus**?” A small voice was heard a mix between Luna’s regular voice and another.

This made them stop talking and turn to see Luna staring at them. Garrus looks at her eyes, they weren't completely black, instead, they were black with dilated red pupils, and they were beautiful.

He found himself walking towards her, “Luna, I’m sorry.” He whispers and Kasumi grabs his arms.

“Don’t.” She said, “We need Mama Shep. I can’t break her out of this and you are being targeted by her, no way in hell you can break her out either.” She quickly whispers to him.

Garrus looks at Kasumi with a pain expression before looking back at Luna who stares at him shaking. Closing his eyes tight he turns towards the opposite end of the hallways and they ran.

Her mind felt like it was breaking in two, “No… **No**! St **op**! I **d** on't," She tries to turn the other way, but her body wouldn't stop following them, "... **want to...** hur **t** **hi** m!" Tears ran down her eyes as she stares at Garrus running away, trying to fight the thing inside of her, " **Garrus**!” She screams, and suddenly, her eyes were back to being completely black, along with a toothy, evil smile on her face, as the walls broke around her.

“Spectre Vakarian, Dr. Shepard wishes to speak with you,” EDI said finally getting him.

“Coms are back up? Yes, patch her through we need her help!” He said running out of breath.

“Garrus! We had to get away from the station because of the debris! Please tell me what stage Luna is at? Please, I beg you, it’s like the time on the station.”

“No, Dr. Shepard she’s…she’s fallen to despair. I don’t know what to do. She wants to kill me after…after what I said to her.” He said full of sadness.

“Tell her about the other issue!” Kasumi shouts.

“I…see, I won’t lie to you Garrus, I was hoping you were different.” When she said that he felt disappointed in himself. “Either way, what ‘other issue’?”

“Zaeed’s daughter is going crazy as well. We don’t know what damage she’s done to the station either, but it sounds bad.”

“That does not sound good at all.” There was a pause, “Garrus I am going to ask you to do something very risky, but maybe it could work.”

“I don’t like that sound of that Mama Shep,” Kasumi said worriedly.

“Tell me what I need to do Dr. Shepard.” He said determinedly.

“Where is Luna right now?”

He turns around to see her biotic blink trying to get closer to them, and it seems she isn’t holding back anymore.

_‘I’m sorry Luna’_

“She’s chasing us as we speak!”

“Good…I mean, sorry. Listen, try to lead her towards Zaeed’s daughter. Maybe they could cancel each other out. During the time I didn’t know how to control myself; Luna and I would tire each other out when we both lost control. Aria wasn’t very happy about us back then.”

“She wants us to get blown up!” Kasumi shouts almost tripping.

“No! If they direct their powers at each other there is a good chance nothing will blow up. There will be damage though. The alternative is right now, where if they are both left unchecked, there is a good chance everything will blow up.”

“I’ll make sure she gets there Dr. Shepard.”

Another pause, “Please Garrus, hurry. Our powers are not natural, using these powers causes us to burn from the inside of our bodies; which, if left uncontrolled, would ultimately force our bodies to lose weight. Right now, Luna is losing all of her body weight as she uses her powers, correct?"

He looks back at the deathly thin Luna, "Yes, I think, she's extremely thin right now!" He shouts jumping over some debris, "And very powerful!" The walls shake at her scream and Kasumi gasps, dodging some electric wires hanging from the now destroyed ceiling.

"I figured as much," She sighs, "With enough mental training, our body learns to create certain chemicals to help keep us in balance while using an extraordinary amount of our powers."

"Like you?!"

"Yes, but Luna still needs training, which is why she needs Mordin's drug. His drug adds the necessary chemicals within her body to help balance her out. ”

“So, what happens after they cancel each other out?” He gasps out while dodging a warp.

“I will have Mordin's drug ready for Luna. Since I am much stronger than her, I would be able to get close to her without any trouble. Just make sure, you, stay far away from her Garrus, from what you have told me she is pissed at you and will see you as an enemy. I know in the past you helped her, but this is much different. This time can actually kill you.” She warns and Garrus swallows, feeling his guilt weight on him.

After speaking to Laena Garrus coms Zaeed.

“What the hell do you want Garrus!? I have my own problems right now.” Zaeed shouts and a loud bang was heard.

“Get the hell away from me old man!”

“Jenn-!”

“That’s not my fucking name! You’re not my fucking father!”

“Zaeed, where are you? I need your nav point so I could lead Shepard your way. It’s the only way to make, both your daughter and Shepard, stop.”

“What?” He gasps out and Garrus heard something blow up.

“I said, I need your nav point! Dr. Shepard said they need to cancel each other out!” Garrus said getting impatient.

“They need to cancel what out? Who the hell are they!? You mean the screaming banshee?” Zaeed yells as another explosion was her, "Goddamn it Jennifer, stop!" 

Glaring ahead of him, he pushes his anger away, “That screaming banshee is Shepard!” He growls.

“That…make sense. Why didn’t I think it was her?" He whispers under his breath, "Guess I was too focused on Jennifer.” Another bang was heard.

“Leave me the fuck alone! I'm not Jennifer!” A scream was heard and soon there was silence.

Zaeed coughs, "Jenn looks like she's taking a break, I need you to repeat what the hell needs to happen before she starts throwing shit at me!" Zaeed said out of breath and panting.

“Dr. Shepard said we need to have them meet so they can cancel each other out, so I need your nav point to lead Shepard to Jennifer,” Garrus repeats this time hoping to get it through the old mercenary veteran.

“But how?” He gasps.

“Their powers would do it for them.”

There was a pause and another bang, “I…fine, I sent you my nav point, but promise me, Jennifer won’t get hurt.”

Garrus didn’t say anything and he wasn’t going to. Hanging up he kept running heading towards Zaeed’s location after receiving the nav point.

Rushing inside the room they saw Zaeed get blasted away by a bald woman full of tattoos. She was growling at him as he flew and hits the wall.

Coughing he looks at her, “I’m sorry.”

She starts to pace angrily losing control of herself, “No! No! You can’t just come back and say you’re sorry! You abandoned me!”

“I thought you were dead.” He spits up some blood, “You’re mother…I looked for you for years, but I couldn’t find you. I’m sorry Jennifer.” He gave a pain expression, he knew he failed her. When he got into contact with the Shadow Broker all he had to do was ask, but he didn’t. He didn’t feel worthy to know where she was. She was right, he abandoned her.

She was about to throw an object at him, “Don’t call me Jennifer! You can’t say that! You’re not allowed to say that!” Tears ran down her eyes, “No! No! No! No!” Before she could throw the object at him a loud scream was heard.

Luna arrives glowing as the door behind her crushes at the weight of her powers.

“ **Garrus**!” She screams looking directly towards Garrus, but suddenly felt that power again, and her sight turns towards the other powerful biotic in the room. She could feel the power in her. Luna could tell this female was a danger to her and she wants her dead. Using her warp she directed it at the glowing female.

Zaeed’s eyes went wide, “Jennifer! Don’t get hit by-!” He screams out.

She growls, “My name is Jack! Not Jennifer! And I’m not you’re fucking daughter!” She screams before using her own warp canceling Luna’s.

Luna looks shocked before glaring at Jack and lets out a loud scream causing everyone to drop to the ground by the weight caused by the scream.

Jack growl and uses her biotics to push herself up, glaring at Luna, “Shut. The. Fuck. Up!” She yells gathering biotic energy in her hand and runs towards Luna.

Luna glares back and uses her own energy getting ready to strike at Jack. When the two meet, they were looking into each other’s eyes as their energies matched in power and strength.

Luna noting they were equal in strength, this way, she decides to scream knowing Jack couldn’t win in that regard. Jack, on the other hand, didn’t lighten up nor was affected by the scream, instead, she got even more powerful as she felt herself lose control of her entire body as it starts glows brighter blue with a hint of red. She pushes more power into her fist, as it got closer to Luna’s screaming face.

Luna was starting to feel fear as she realizes the scream wasn’t affecting her. She was going to die by this power, but how? How can someone be as strong as her? No Human can beat her in this state besides her mother! So how?!

Jack’s eyes were starting to become black as she uses her power and Luna saw. Panicking she builds up her own biotic punch to use against Jack.

Their fists collided

Both flew back hitting the wall with their backs. Luna gasps as she looks at Jack, who was looking back at her breathing heavily with one of her eyes completely black and it was odd, even to Luna.

“What? Shocked you’re not the only fucking one with powers, screaming bitch?” She spat making sure to spit some blood out of her mouth.

“ **Wh** o **a** re yo **u**?” Luna asks, voice trembling in fear and wonder.

_“Another me?”_

Jack glares, “You’re worst fucking nightmare,” She growls before using a shockwave towards Luna and quickly picking up a broken YMIR mech throwing it at her.

Luna jumps out of the way then uses her powers to pull Jack towards her and then throws her into the wall, hard.

Jack coughs and spits blood out of her mouth. Growling, she stands up and her body glows brightly blue, with a much more noticeable red this time, again.

Looking directly at Luna she charges forward. Luna glares back at her, who cares if she suffered the same as her, this bitch is going to die. Luna charges forward towards Jack not holding back.

Garrus lifts his head and groans at the pain of getting flung around. Helping Kasumi up he saw Zaeed bleeding out but watching the two fight.

“I…didn’t know she was this powerful…her mother was biotic. I knew Jennifer was exposed to Eezo, but this? This couldn’t be possible? Could it.” He gasps coughing.

Garrus uses some medi-gel to stabilize the old man and turns to Kasumi who was recording everything.

“What are you doing?”

“Recording. What do you think?”

“Why would you be recording this?!” He yells as another explosion was heard.

Kasumi gave a small smile as she continues to record not looking at him, “Because her mother needs to see this. Mama Shep is going to shit bricks knowing there is another like Luna." She turns to Garrus, "Also, this is kind of cool.” She shrugs.

Garrus turns back to watch the two biotics clash again canceling each other out.

“When Dr. Shepard said ‘cancel each other out’. I thought, knock each other out with one biotic punch or something. Not this.” Garrus said watching them do it again. They were both in the air using their powers to stay afloat.

Kasumi's eyes were full of wonder as she watches Luna use slam on Jack, who smashes into the ground, but gets up and uses flare at her, causing a huge explosion of biotic, red/blue, powers forcing Luna to hit the ceiling in pain.

Her eyes grew wide, “It’s amazing how she found an equal. I mean there is much stronger biotics than Shepard, think of Asaris’ or just her mom, but this? This is a human. Unless…she’s not? And she’s kin-”

“Don’t you fucking dare call her anything but Human! That’s my goddamn daughter!” Zaeed barks out.

Kasumi rolls her eyes, “Fine, she’s Human, but something doesn’t add up here. Either she’s been trained by Asaris’ or she also was experimented on just like Shep.” Kasumi said looking at the old man, “Judging from the red hue in her biotic powers, similar to Shep and Mama Shep, I say it’s the latter.” She turns back to the fight.

Zaeed draws in a breath trying to think before dread sets in.

_“Cerberus is known to, experiment, so they could advance the Human race. Although this facility has cut ties to Cerberus there is a good chance they did something to her.” Laena said crossing her legs as Zaeed spits on the dead body of Vido._

_He looks at her angry, “What do you mean?” He growls._

_“I mean just what I said. Batarians are not the only ones who like to experiment. Every race, I’m sure, has people experimenting. I mean, look at me, I did,” she sighs sadly, “If there are questions, someone has to answer.” She said with a faraway look on her face._

_“Doesn’t mean they did anything to her.”_

_“Vido said he sold her to them for a large chunk of money that he used to betray you with. Here’s what I think happened. Your girlfriend at the time, Josie, has your daughter, Jennifer, who is a special biotic; she’s not super powerful, but there is something about her.”_

_Zaeed starts to remember Jennifer using her biotic to break things, at a very young age of two. To him it was funny and fun, to Josie, it was worrisome. She believed this would cause attention to Jenn, and she was right._

_“Cerberus finds out, somehow, and uses Vido to get to her. Vido, knowing you will not give her away, uses the money he is paid to ‘kill’ you and gives Jennifer to Cerberus. It all went to plan, but you survived.” She said touching his shoulder in comfort._

_He drops to the floor and stares at the body, “What are you a fucking detective?” He asks in disbelief._

_“No, just observant, comes with being a scientist.” She squeezes his shoulder, “I was studying up on…Jack, which is her name now by the way, as you killed Vido. Everything points to her being…tempered with…mentally and physically.” She looks at him sadly, “I only tell you this because there is a good chance you will not meet the daughter you think you will. Instead, you will meet someone else, someone unstable. I…have Luna, I know what’s it like to see someone you love be tortured mentally from their past. I just want you to be prepared.”_

He starts to laugh bitterly, “Told Josie I’ll be a shit father…” he grumbles.

Garrus Omni-tool chimes, “Hello?”

“Garrus! Where are you?!” Laena screams.

“Honestly, I don’t know, but maybe EDI could find out?”

“Yes, sending you location now, Dr.Shepard.”

“Thank you, EDI. I need to stop them before it gets worse!”

After speaking to Dr.Shepard, a loud thump was heard and they look to see Luna on top of Jack and Jack wasn’t looking too good; Luna wasn’t either.

“Luna!” Garrus yells and gets up, wincing at his pain, and ignores Dr.Shepard's words, by heading towards Luna.

“Jennifer!” Zaeed coughs out too much in pain to move.

Luna was breathing hard as she sits up on top of Jack looking down at her. Jack was breathing hard and glaring at her. Luna’s powers begin to power up for the last time as Jack coughs up some blood and grins.

“Do it.” She gasps out.

Luna growls and went to punch Jack in the face, which would ultimately kill her.

But suddenly, Garrus grabs her arm with his right hand, “Luna don’t!” He yells.

She turns around to Garrus and for a moment their eyes met. It was at this moment that Garrus believed he did it. He got her to calm down until she screams and a bright red/blue beam shoots out from her other hand and into the right side of Garrus’ face.

Garrus' body flew far away from the two biotics rolling into other objects in the area before finally coming to a stop.

Luna stood there breathing heavily until it registered to her what she has done.

“Garrus?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I was playing Mass Effect 3, after Idk how many times, and I realized Banshees are fucking terrifying and cool. It's like going against the Witch from Left4dead/Left4dead2 just this raw power that you need to run the fuck away from! Then I was like "What if I make Shep a Human Banshee?" and I did.


	19. Life Flashes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Life is so...long, but feel so quick.

Garrus was in bed trying to get as much sleep as he could. He was up all night playing Mass Effect, and talking with Chellick through his Omni-tool, against his parents’ permission, but he was so close to defeating the big boss using Chellick’s strategy! So, they had to stay up all night, seeing the ‘Game Over’ screen was depressing and Garrus was determined to kill Sovereign.

“Garrus,” his mother calls out, but he didn’t hear her. She walks into the room and looks down, seeing his head under his sheets. Shaking her head, her mandibles twitch in amusement.

“Oh no, did someone stay up all night against my wishes?” She peeks under the sheets to see him snoring, he then pulls the sheets tighter around himself, “Would be ashamed if I,” Grabbing the sheets off him, “Woke you up!” She shouts, waking Garrus up from his slumber.

Sitting up with his eyes close, Garrus groans annoyingly at his mother as she opens the blinds to let sunlight in. He didn’t speak but he did follow her moments to the window and cringe at the light beaming at him even with his eyes closed.

“Now that you are awake, it’s time for breakfast and school. I have some good news to share! You and your father would be so excited!” She shouts making sure to keep him awake as she walks out of the room. Garrus decided to slowly maneuver his body back onto the bed and lays down on his pillow falling back to sleep.

“Garrus!” His mother shouts this time with a little force.

He shot up eyes wide open, “Ready!” He shouts back. Slowly, he got out of bed and starts to fix his sheets. He was so tired even as a Turian, not having his four to six hours of sleep felt brutal.

“Couldn’t I just sleep all day?” He whines to himself as he heads to the bathroom to prepare himself for the day.

Lazily, he made his way downstairs to see his father reading Galactic news on his Omni-tool. Judging from his angry face, Garrus knew it was about Humans.

“Can you believe this Galina, Humans actually believe they deserve to be included in C-Sec. Thank the spirits we have competent leadership in C-Sec to refuse this idiocy.” He glares up to his wife that was humming to herself quietly and cooking, “Humans are like the Krogan trying to take control of everything, wouldn’t surprise me if they could give birth to thousands of children per solar cycle.” He angrily said. Noticing his son, he turns to Garrus with a stern look.

Garrus straighten up and coughs, “Morning dad. H-how did you sleep?” He asks quietly playing with his hands.

Castis Vakarian stares at his son and shook his head, “You need more confidence Garrus. I have told you many times, confidence is the key to success. What happens when you are faced with Humans? Are you going to make them overpower you?” He said seriously.

Garrus looks down, “No sir, I won’t,” he said still playing with his hands.

Castis sighs in disappointment, “and I supposed you stood up all night playing video games when we, specifically, told you not to Garrus.” He said.

“Yes sir,” Garrus whispers, looking away from the judgmental eyes of his father. No point in hiding the lie, his father would tell either way. With a sigh, Garrus sits down.

“Video games are a waste of time and not something you should dedicate your time to. Maybe, we should take the games away? Maybe then, you wouldn’t allow it to consume your life.” He said unrelenting.

Garrus looks up in shock, “Wait no! I’m sorry dad I didn’t mean to stay up all night! I promise not to do it again.” He said, as his eyes struggled to stay open.

Castis shook his head, “Look at you Garrus, a growing Turian needs a full night’s rest of six hours. How long did you sleep?” He asks with a little concern in his voice.

“T-two hours.” He whispers looking down at the table in shame.

“Garrus!” His mother, Galina, finally said, “What made you stay up so late on a school night?”

“There was this boss! His name is Sovereign and he kept taunting me and Chellick gave me some advice on how to take him down and I had to defeat him, mom! It was the only way to save the Galaxy!” He said, looking at his mother, suddenly excited at beating the end game boss.

 _'I can't wait for Mass Effect 2 to come out!'_ He thought in excitement.

Castis sighs, “Honestly, you should be learning how to shoot in real life, not some video game.” He crossed his arms, “When you come home from school were going to practice on your aim.” Looking at Garrus daring him to rebel.

Feeling defeating Garrus nods, “Yes sir.” He said sadly.

As they ate their breakfast Galina claps her hands and smiles, “I told you both I have great news! Garrus,” she looks at Garrus who looked at her confused, “Castis,” she looks at her husband who gave her a look of love and his mandible twitch, “I’m pregnant!” She shouts in happiness.

Castis was the first to talk, “Really!?” He stands up, picks her up, and spins her around in happiness, “A little one is on the way!” After the excitement died down their heads touch, “I love you, my beautiful mate.” He whispers.

Garrus sat there in shock, “I’m going to be a big brother?” He said in disbelief.

While walking home from school Garrus and Chellick were talking.

“So a big brother huh? Wow, I don’t think my parents are having another one,” He laughs, “They said one of me is enough!” Chellick mandibles shook as he laughs

“I’m pretty happy to be one, but I don’t know the first thing at being a big brother. What if I hurt him?” Garrus wonders out loud.

“Him? Who says it’s going to be a boy?”

“I do, no way am I getting a sister!” Garrus grumbles.

Chellick laughs, “I bet you will!” He said before stopping, “Hey, do you want to come over? Got this new horror game and would love to play with you!”

Garrus shook his head, “I can’t, going shooting with my dad.” He whines, looking away.

“Why do you sound upset? Going shooting is awesome! Wish my dad would take me often, but his job takes so much of his time. Mom takes me sometimes to, but being a doctor is stressful enough, so I never ask her.” Chellick said.

Garrus sighs and looks away from his friend, “I guess, I just hate how hard he is on me. Just wish he wasn’t so…strict.” Garrus said in anger.

Chellick looks at him, “He might be strict, but he loves you Garrus. That’s what my dad tells me sometimes when he’s hard on me. Tough love and all.” Looking ahead to see his mother standing talking to his aunt, Chellick runs off, “Hey, I gotta go! Talk to you later, Garrus! Remember what I said.”

Garrus watches him hug his mother and they walk away. With a heavy sigh, he makes his way to the shooting area.

Once there he saw his father looking up at the sky before turning his gaze towards Garrus. Not saying a word he takes the sniper and gives it to Garrus who holds it shakenly. He then points to the targets that Garrus needs to shoot and Garrus swallows.

Aiming the sniper was hard since it felt heavy in his arms. It’s not like he hasn’t held it before, but today just feel like the world in weighting on him. Doesn’t help that he stood up all night and his father stare was making him nervous.

Seeing the older Turian stare at him made Garrus want to run away.

“I can’t do it.” He whimpers looking down.

“Yes, you can,” Castis said, crossing his arms.

“It’s too hard,” he whines, “and I’m not getting any better!” Garrus shouts glaring at the targets.

“Nothing is ever easy Garrus. This is what I want you to understand. Sitting home playing video games isn’t going to help you grow. My job as your father is to teach you had to be an adult, not have you sit around all day playing video games.” He takes the sniper from his son.

“But-”

“No, if’s, and’s, or but’s. When things are hard that’s when you try harder.” He aims the sniper, “You pull yourself together when the going gets tough," he narrows his eyes slightly, "and keep going for it," he shoots one target, "because there comes a time when no one," he shoot three more targets, "can do it, but you can.” He finishes and holds the sniper in his hands staring at his work.

Garrus watches in admiration as his father easily took down all targets. As he watches his father replace the targets, he still felt intimidated. His father then returns and hands him the sniper while looking him in the eyes.

“Listen Garrus, when something you care about needs you; I want you to have the confidence and strength to save and protect them. I know I am hard on you, but it’s not because I like it, it’s because I believe in you, Garrus.” He gets on one knee and touches Garrus’ shoulder, “I know you can do it.” He said looking Garrus in the eyes. He then turns his head and points to the targets.

Holding the sniper Garrus aims, takes a deep breath, and shot each target.

“Duffseye,” Garrus whispers, before pulling back, grinning as he turns around looking at his shock friends staring at the now destroyed targets.

“Alright, pay up, every single one of you! I told you I could easily take them out.” Garrus laughs proud of himself.

“Damn it! There goes my rent money.” Kaira groans taking out her credit chit, grumbling under her breath.

“That is so unfair! How the hell could you do that?” Milkan whines also taking out his credit chit.

Garrus chuckles, “I had good guidance.” He said, thinking of his father, "and honesty, I am just too damn good," He laughs, as Kaira rolls her eyes.

"Cocky bastard," She grumbles as he takes her credits and thanks her while a smirking.

Chellick uses his Omni-tool, sighing in defeat, while giving him his credits, “You know, I've been saving up to impress someone special. Couldn’t you be nice and not take my credits?” He begs, hoping Garrus could be nice to him.

Garrus sat down and cross his arm, “Nope, pay up Chellick, you might be my best friend, but I need a new sniper mod.” He laughs and Chellick groans.

As they all talk and share their experiences of being in the program. One of the officers walks over to Garrus after seeing his impressive skill.

“Garrus,” he said, Garrus stands up straight and give him a salute.

“Yes, Sir?”

“I wish to talk to you in private, and don’t worry nothing bad.” The officer chuckles when seeing a look of worry on his face, and begins to walk away from the group.

Garrus nods and quickly catches up with him.

“I saw what you did and it was impressive. What do you plan on doing after this over? Will you completely join the military, as your father did, back in days? Although, heard he’s on the Citadel now, right?”

Garrus thought for a moment, “I don’t know sir, to be honest. I know my father wants me to join him on the Citadel, but I don’t think I want to.”

“Maybe you could become a Spectre? I’ve seen your skills, and not just shooting. I see potential in you to lead and command. Then again Spectre’s work alone.” He laughs.

Garrus took in the information and nods. The thought of becoming a Spectre seems few and far in between, but becoming a general of the army wouldn’t be so bad. Is that what he wants though?

A year later he finishes his mandatory military service and was now debating on what to do next. While thinking, he was sent a message on his Omni-tool, and as he read, his eyes grew wide.

Racing to find his friend Chellick, he saw him talking on his Omni-tool annoyed.

“Yes mom, I understand.” Chellick groans.

“Chellick look at this!”

Chellick lazily looks at Garrus Omni-tool and reads the message. He wasn’t impressed until he read it again, “Um, mom, can I talk to you later?” When he hung up the call he looks at Garrus with wide eyes, “Garrus,” He gasps with his mouth open.

“Yup!”

“Spirits!”

“Now, you have to call me Spectre, Garrus Vakarian.” He said a stupid grin on his face as his mandibles twitch in excitement.

“Shut up! They said they see your potential, and you might be considered! You’re not Spectre yet!” They both laugh and when the excitement dies down Chellick looks at his friend with a sad expression, “I know you are excited about this, but what about your father? Doesn’t he hate Spectres?”

Garrus' excited face quickly dissolved into fear, “Crap…”

When Garrus returns home his mother was quietly sleeping in her room. His father was taking some time off taking care of her as there seems to be something wrong, nothing hasn’t come up yet, but she seems to be in some pain and very forgetful. Eventually, he would have to go back to the Citadel.

When Castis looks up at the nervous-looking Garrus he crossing his arms.

“What have I told you about confidence, Garrus?” He said, seriously.

Standing up straight with more confidence, Garrus spoke, “I’ve been offered an opportunity to become a Spectre. It’s not set in stone, but…I co-” He said slowly.

His father was quiet and his eyes went dark, “No.” he said stubbornly, cutting him off.

“But dad-”

“I said no, Garrus. No, son of mine, will become like those thugs.” He said unyieldingly.

“Spectres are protectors of the Galaxy dad, they're not ‘thugs’.” He protested, but Castis wasn’t having any of it.

“Spectres, do not follow the rules, Garrus! Without rules, there is no structure. I have raised you to follow the rules and you will. No, if’s and’s or but’s.” He finished and Garrus just stared at him angrily. Turning his back to his father, Garrus angrily walks out of the door.

Once outside, he spots her standing by the sky car on the Citadel. She looks at him and smiles.

With a twitch of his mandibles, he walks over to her and places his head on hers, “Hey.” He whispers.

Mayre giggles as she pulls away from him, she had a grey hide, with white colony markings on her face, and beautiful teal eyes.

“How’s my sexy C-Sec officer doing today? Did you pay the rent on time?” She said as they enter the car.

Garrus laughs, “I missed a payment once! Come on, don’t shame me. Maybe if a certain person didn’t like certain clothes things would be different.” He said typing in their destination.

She gasps, “No one told you to buy this expensive dress,” she looks out the window, “I do love it though, thank you Garrus.” She whispers looking over at him.

“Anything for you Mayre.” He lovingly said.

When they arrived at the restaurant they walk inside. The place was extravagant and beautiful, very high class.

“Can we afford this place?” Mayre asks quietly to Garrus and he chuckles.

“Of course, I’ve been saving up just for this moment.” He said giving his name to the waiter.

After they are seated Mayre felt a bit insecure being here. On Palaven she was used to a more not so expensive lifestyle. Garrus on the other hand has a father who was decorated in the military and was more on the wealthier side. Sure the Vakarians weren’t that rich, but they were well off.

He took her hand and gave her a sound to reassure her, “Hey, come on, don’t look like that Mayre. I know, it’s a bit weird for you, but I want this night to be special.” He said softly.

Mayre couldn’t help herself and giggles, “Garrus, you’re so sweet.” She said placing her hand on top of his, “What did I ever do to deserve you?” She asks softly with a hint of sadness.

“I should be the one asking that.” He said and they stared at each other until their food came. As they ate Garrus became nervous as he prepared his thoughts and question for her.

Mayre heard singing and turns to see an Asari singing softly for the patrons of the restaurant. Hearing her sing made Mayre feel nice, but a part of her felt jealous of the singer. She knew she was on borrow time and if she doesn’t get an organ donor soon…she won’t be achieving her dream as a singer.

Garrus coughs, getting her attention, “Mayre, I have a question for you.” He nervously said trying to build confidence.

_“Confidence is the key to success.”_

“Garrus, what’s the question?” She asks worried he found out about her condition.

“Will,” he swallows, “Will you be my bondmate?” He said hoping she would say yes. His heart was beating fast from his chest in nervousness.

She stares at him in shock not knowing how to speak, in her mind, she was screaming, yes. She loves this man so much. To be his bondmate would be one of the best things to ever happen in her life. When she was going to scream, yes, but then she hears singing from the Asari, and it reminds her about her liver. The devastation was felt as she stares at the man she loves. How could she become his bondmate and die after? No, she will not burden him like this.

“Garrus I would love to," He looks hopeful, "but I don’t want to become your bondmate without achieving my dream of becoming a singer." His expression begins to falter, "Even this relationship is hard to maintain when trying to achieve this dream.” Lies all lies and she knows it. As she saw his face full of hurt she wanted to hold him and tell the truth. Her liver is weak and there aren’t any donors available with her current health insurance.

“I...,” he starts before coughing to hide his pain, “I understand Mayre. You know I am your biggest fan and would support you to the end.” He told her hands, “I love you, Mayre, and would wait for you.” He felt like he was in a romance movie, but he didn’t care, this is the love of his life and he will wait for her. No one in the Galaxy can compare to Mayre.

She made small sounds of sadness to him upset at herself for not telling him the truth. With a twitch of her mandibles, she smiles, “One day we will be bondmates, Garrus. Until then,” she winks at him, “We could have some ‘fun’ tonight. I could really use some playtime with you.”

He chuckles and looks back at their entwined hands when he looks back at Mayre she has her eyes closed. He was feeling so much pain and heartache as he watches her breathe softly.

“Mayre,” he whispers and her eyes open slightly. Her beautiful teal eyes stare at him and everything hurts.

She weakly places her hand on his face, not able to speak, since the tubes in her mouth prevented her from doing so. Feeling her feathered touch made him want to scream.

How could this happen? Why did this happen? Why didn’t she just tell him the problem? There were so many damn questions, but no time to answer them.

She was dying

He begins to remember the time she told him her problem and how she solved it. He didn’t like it one bit, but he trusts her. Plus she already did the surgery there was no coming back. She was fine at the start. Her music was becoming popular, and everyone was beginning to love her.

Then…this happened. The liver she got from this, Dr. Saleon guy, was killing her.

The doctors didn’t catch the problem fast enough and the effects were irreversible.

Watching her die was painful to Garrus, but he had to be here. Her family was on Palaven and although Garrus told them he would pay for them to come here, they didn’t want to be indebted to him.

_"When something you care about needs you Garrus, I want you to have the confidence and strength to save and protect them.”_

Hearing his father's word made him want to throw something, or kill someone. Anger filled his veins, and he knew it was mostly at himself for not being there to save her, to protect her. He failed, always failing; Garrus clutches his hand and gave a mournful sound of pain.

She coughs, and Garrus quickly snaps out of his pain, readying to rush for a doctor, but she holds him and he stops. They look at each other in the eyes as she kept coughing. She tries to speak, but only small sounds came out so, Garrus couldn’t hear.

She tries again

He bends to her level focusing on only her voice and, not the sound of the heart machine slowing down.

“I..l..o..ve…y..o..u,” She said, and he pulls away watching the life leave her eyes.

The heart monitor flat lined and he stood there as doctors rush inside to bring her back, but she was gone.

Garrus fell back onto the chair and looked down at the floor in anger. How? Why? Where!?

He looks up from the floor and stands quickly from the desk of his office. Hearing they found him made his heart race in all kinds of emotions.

He will get justice for Mayre!

He saw Chellick standing there reading data from his Omni-tool and Garrus walks over to him.

“Where is he? The bastard?” He growls and Chellick turns to him.

“Right now, he’s in his lab. We’re trying to get to him, so he could peacefully surrender since your father wants to stick to the rules.” Chellick said a little annoyed by doing this.

Garrus was pissed, of course, his father would do this! With a growl, he watches as the other officers made their way to the lab. Why couldn’t his father understand that with someone like Dr. Saleon, you can’t play by the rules!

A loud explosion was heard and Garrus watches as some of the officers that were entering the lab were either dead or severely hurt.

“Quick! We need medics at the scene!” He heard being shout.

Garrus didn’t take any chances and ran inside the burning building. This wasn’t safe at all, but he wanted that bastard dead.

People were being rushed out trying to get to safety and Garrus bumps into an Asari Officer running off.

“What are you doing?! Get out of here!” She shouts.

Garrus shook his head, “Don’t worry about me! I’m going to see if there is anyone else I could help out! Now go!” He lies and ran off before she could say anything.

With his pistol out he hunted for the doctor. Each corner of the burning building got him closer to the man who killed Mayre. The smoke was getting to him and he could hear in his coms to get out of there. It wasn’t until he made it through, that he realizes the doctor was nowhere to be seen.

“Garrus! Get out of there!” Chellick screams.

“I can’t! I need to find him!” He yells back desperately.

“He’s gone, Garrus, took his ‘employees’ and ran. He took them on his ship!”

Garrus wanted to scream, he was too late, “Tell Citadel defense to shoot him down!” He shouts dodging debris from collapsing on him.

“Your father said you would want that and told them not to listen to your orders.”

“What!?”

“I’m sorry, Garrus, but your father is the Commander and he wants to stay by the book,” Chellick said in sadness, knowing why his best friend wanted this guy dead.

Garrus finally made it back out to watch the ship fly away. He drops to his knees watching the person who killed Mayre escape. He was devastated.

A hand touches his shoulder and he turns around to see his mother smiling at him as he faces the window of the hospital.

“What’s wrong? And don’t tell me nothing, Garrus, I know my son.” She whispers.

“Just thinking of Mayre, mom.” He said softly.

She touches his face, “I know you miss her, but you can’t blame yourself for what’s happened. You must learn to accept her death and move on.” She said with kindness.

He stares at his mother and felt depressed all over again. Mayre is gone, but his mother…is sick and there is no cure. Why must this happen to him? Why can’t things be easier?

_“When things are hard that’s when you try harder. You pull yourself together when the going gets tough, and keep going for it; because there comes a time when no one can do it, but you can.”_

Hearing his father’s words made him feel angry and appreciative at the same time and he hates it. As much as he wants to hate his father, he was right. He needs to try harder, he needs to be better! If not for him, then his mother.

“She would want you to let go and be happy Garrus,” she whispers.

He didn’t say anything, couldn’t say anything. If he could just be happy he would. It’s not a switch! He wanted to say. It’s not a choice to feel this way! He wanted to say.

“I know, mom,” he whispers, it was all he could say not wanting to worry his sick mother.

They were quiet again and Garrus wonders when she will start to forget again. He takes in a breath.

“I’m leaving, mom, but I promise I will help pay for the medical expenses,” he looks away from her, “I can’t work with dad anymore. I’m tired of always listen to him. So I am taking control of my own life and doing things my way.” He said, feeling ashamed not looking at her.

When she didn’t say anything, he thought she was upset with his decision. He looks up at her and notices she was looking at him; her mandibles twitch.

“What’s wrong? And don’t tell me nothing, Garrus, I know my son.” She whispers.

Garrus opens his mouth to talk. Heartbreak was all he felt as he hears her repeat herself from earlier. This disease was taking her away from them and he hates it. He could feel rage build within him as he watches her look at him confused, but with a smile on her face.

Taking a deep breath he smiles and leans his head on hers.

“Don’t worry mom, nothing is wrong. I just wanted to see you again, and I,” he swallows closing his eyes, “I love you.”

When he opens his eyes he stares at the drink in his hand and takes another gulp. He was relaxing trying to figure out how to earn more credits while on Omega. He didn’t know why here of all places, to earn these credits, but it's something.

“I’m going to drink out of your stupid Turian skull!” The Krogans yells.

Garrus turns his head to see what’s going on when he saw a Krogan punching a Turian in the face.

_‘Drink out of your stupid Turian skull? Is that the best he could say?”_

“Stupid Turian skull? Come on, Krogan, is that the best you could say?” The Turian taunted. Garrus almost chuckled at him saying what he was thinking.

“You think you can talk back to me. I’ll kill you!” He screams and before he could put another hand on him, Garrus gets up and pushes the Krogan. When the Krogan turns around to fight, and Garrus punches him in the face.

He didn’t stop there, instead, he kept punching. The Krogan rages harder, pushes him off, and as he charges, Garrus rushes at him. Grabbing the Krogan, he flings him to the wall. The Krogan looks up at him and grunts.

“You’re strong for a Turian.” He growls.

Garrus smirks, “And you’re weak for a Krogan.” Before the Krogan said anything else Garrus knocks him out.

Satisfied with his handy work, Garrus left the bar and starts walking away. The Turian from the bar came running behind him.

“Hey, thanks back there. Thought I was going to die.” He chuckles.

Garrus turns back at him, “This happens often?” He asks.

“Yeah, Omega isn’t a kind place. It’s full of criminals that nobody could touch unless they want to get themselves killed. Omega has no rule, they could do whatever the hell they want.”

Garrus looks away from the Turian and leans on a railing looking at Omega. The smell, the look, the atmosphere. Omega needs change and Garrus could see it.

“Omega has no rules huh?” Garrus asks the Turian.

“Yeah.”

He looks at the Turian and nods, “What’s your name?”

“It’s Sindonis.”

“Garrus,” he replies almost about to say his last name but ends up not doing it. Sindonis nods and gives out his hand to shake.

“Nice to meet you Garrus.” Garrus took his hand and shook it.

Turning back to the scenery he starts to speak, “I say we do something about these criminals. Make them think twice about murdering someone in the streets.”

Sindonis looks at him in shock, “Are you crazy? It’s only the two of us. How could we possibly go against the criminals on Omega?”

Garrus chuckles, “No, it won’t be just us two. I’m sure there are people on this station ready to fight against these criminals. No, we won’t be alone. We’ll form a team to get things under control. No more bullshit Sindonis. No more Criminals getting away with whatever they want.” He looks at Sindonis, “You could join me or not, but I am doing this.”

Sindonis nods, “I’m with you Garrus, no matter what.”

It wasn’t long before the team grew to twelve fighting their way through Omega gaining support and beating down the gangs up top.

Garrus walks into his room laughing as his team, his friends, all joked downstairs about Kane having one eye. He passes by his desk full of things including photos of Mayre and his family. He sat down and look at the pictures from afar feeling sadness deep within him.

This sadness, no, Jin told him it was depression. At first, he laughed not believing he, Garrus Vakarian, has depression; his father would be disappointed in having a ‘Human’ weakness.

It took him some time to confront it, but Jin was right, he has depression and it seems to never want to go away. Sadly, he didn’t know when it started. Maybe it was when Mayre died, maybe when he was a kid. All he knows is that he has depression, and it is exhausting.

It was an invisible weight that kept him down not able to let go of him. It felt like a thousand Krogans were sitting on him not allowing him to breathe. Any hint of happiness would disappear once he was alone, just like now.

The memories of being a failure to his father and mother. Disappearing on his sister who called multiple times, but he never picks up. Mayre, spirits there was Mayre, and the fact he couldn’t find that doctor. That…Salarian fucking doctor that sold Mayre a faulty liver that resulted in her death.

Garrus was depressed and he knows it. Jin wanted to help him talk it out like a damn therapist and Garrus quickly told the Turian no.

_“When things are hard that’s when you try harder. You pull yourself together when the going gets tough and do it”_

He growls at his father’s words still deep inside of him never letting up. As much as he admires the words he hates them.

With a sigh, he lays on the bed and groans at his tired body. Today was a good day after helping Omega again, and tomorrow is going to be even greater.

Closing his eyes, Garrus fell asleep. When he woke up, he felt like he was on top of the galaxy. He could take on anything at the moment and nothing could get him down.

Last night was the best night he’s ever had since his leaving the Citadel, since Mayre. Walking into the bathroom he took a piss and yawn. He starts to wonder where she went the mystery Human from last night.

“Wish she stayed,” he whispers to no one.

After taking a piss he washes his hands and as he did he looks up to see a bite mark on his neck.

Wait

He looks again and starts to panic touching at the mark.

She bit him! She marked him!

“Spirits!” He yells out trying to remember if he bit her as well. Thinking hard, he starts to remember biting hard on her neck as well. They bonded! How could he forget? All he could remember is feeling so good inside of her. Wanting her. Needing her. Claiming her for him and only him.

Spirits

He shuts his eyes tight putting his hands on his head. He let his instinct drive him like a damn idiot. A primitive Turian in heat, claiming a woman in the heat of passion.

Fuck

He immediately thought about Mayre, and how she was going to be his bondmate. Depression starts to wrap its arm around his neck making him feel low.

_Her insides squeeze him tightly_

He groans at the thought and feels his plates shift. She was so squishy, wet, and tight. He can feel her, taste her, but he can’t see her or hear how she sounds.

This made him confused. He couldn’t see her in his memories; she was a silhouette in his mind. What? Couldn’t hear her either, but he could remember how she felt, and how she tastes.

Odd

How could this be? How does that work?! It doesn’t make any sense!

Putting on his clothes he rushes downstairs. To see the same Human female working the counter from last night. He could remember her, but not the woman he bonded with? What?

She lazily looks at him and rolls her eyes, “Relax sir, antihistamines are free here.” She points to a pile of drugs, “seeing how you are not dying, I think you are okay.” She said a lazy smile on her face.

“That means you know I came here with a Human last night?”

She shrugs, “Lots of Turians come here with Humans. Lots of Humans come here with Turians. The most I see are Turians and Asari’s though.”

He sighs, “Look, I need to know the Human I came here with. Can you tell me?” He asks in a panic.

“I need to know some more details. What was her skin color? Hair color? Eye color?”

“I thought you would know, seeing how you knew I came here with a Human.” He said getting impatient.

She looks him up and down annoyed, “All you Turians look alike. Why the hell would I know which Human you came here with?”

He glares at her racist statement, “Turian and Humans are a rare pair how can you not tell me what Human I came here with. And not all Turians look the same.” He growls.

She looks at him for a moment squinting her eyes trying to figure out who he was. Then shrugs again, “Nope, not a clue. Now, if you could take your shot and leave, that would be great, thank you.” She said with a forced smile before she starts to play with her Omni-tool; and Garrus knew he wasn’t going to get anything out of her.

As he kept walking he starts to think about the woman again. Trying his damnedest to remember her, but he couldn’t. He felt disappointed as he wanted to know if she was happy about the bondmark, maybe one day they could...

No, he can’t think like that. To bond in the heat of passion was just foolish; his father would disown him for doing so, doesn’t help that it was with a damn Human. A Human who happens to feels amazing. No, he can’t think like that. Need to get this removed.

His Omni-tool chimes, it was Sindonis, “G-Garrus? I need you to drop whatever you’re doing and come meet me.”

Garrus panics, “Are you alright? You sound-”

Sindonis cuts him off, “I’m fine just ran into a little trouble on a job, just need your help is all.”

“Alright, I’m coming,” The bondmark can wait he needs to help a friend.

With a sigh and shrug, he walks to the location Sindonis is located. He turns a corner and opens the door to their base.

Rushing inside he looks around and saw the dead bodies of his team scattered on the fall. A cough was heard and he turns to see Jin struggling to stay alive.

Running over to him, Garrus held him in his arms, “Jin! It’s going to be okay! I’ll save you! Just stay with me!” He orders.

“Please boss…please m…ake…sure…Na…lah…” He struggles before dying in his arms. Garrus stares at his dead friend and anger fuels him.

Grabbing his sniper, he rushes over to see the gangs ready to come here and kill him. Glaring at them through his scope he shot. Every. Last. One.

Hours went by and things haven’t let up. Garrus knew he was doomed to die and he doesn’t care. He deserves to die for letting his guard down. Maybe that woman from last night was there to distract him. Yeah, that was it. She was someone to distract him from saving his team, but what about Sindonis?

He shot some more. He had a choice, keeping thinking of Sindonis or…contact his family for a last goodbye.

“Hello?” He heard his father's voice and after so long, it felt nice to hear it.

“Dad.” He said tired, exhausted from giving the gangs hell if they really want to kill him.

“Garrus is that you? What’s that noise?!”

“Just a little target practice.”

“Then call me back later!” He could hear the annoyance in his father's voice and Garrus swallows.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to do that,” He shot again looking as more mercs ran on the bridge, “Too many targets.”

His father was silent and Garrus knew, he knew.

“I…see.” The heartbreak in his father's voice made Garrus feel ashamed that this is happening. How he ran away from his family and never fixed anything. How he pushed everyone away from his life.

“I just wanted to hear your voice. Wanted to know how retirement was treating you. You good?”

“I’m fine, forget about that.” His father's voice was heavy and he could hear the depressing sound through his com.

“Listen, I don’t have a lot of time. I wanted to say you were right about things. A lot more than I gave you credit for. I’m sorry we butted heads so much.” Garrus wanted to put the gun down and just listen to his father one last time.

“I said, forget about that. These targets you’re practicing on, they’re moving fast?”

“So far, not fast enough but they’re learning.”

“How many thermal clips?”

“You know how it is. Could always use a couple more.” He tries to be normal about it. Tries not to fall into despair. He wonders about Solana.

“Work with what you’ve got then. You don’t stop pulling that trigger until it clicks, son.” There he goes again commanding, Garrus always hated having to listen much prefer to be in control, but look where that got him.

“No matter how bad things are falling apart around you, as long as you have at least one bullet left, you can still get the job done. Understand?”

Garrus chuckles darkly, “Yes sir.”

It was quiet on the line and Garrus sighs.

His father spoke again, “I have a friend who is on Omega searching for some woman named, Lunaria Shepard. Its Nihlus, you remember him? An old friend who is a Spectre. He can help get you out. I promise.” There was a pause, “So finish up what you have to do there and then come home to Palaven. We have a lot to sort out.” He said softly.

Garrus aims and shot again, “How’s Solana?” he finally asks.

His father was quiet, “She…she doesn’t want to talk to you right now Garrus, but she misses you. She wants you here.”

Garrus swallows hard and kept shooting. His eyes than trained on something red he stares at it for a while then squeezes his eyes shut to clear his vision. When his eyes open he was met with her red eyes staring back at him, a smile on her face.

He yawns, “What?” he asks.

Bringing her head to his chest, she giggles, “Nothing,” She whispers.

He rolls his eyes at her silliness. They had sex last night, along with some playtime, and it was pretty damn great. Releasing his pent up aggression after they went through the hospital of horror, on Tuchanka, was much needed.

He hears her giggling again and he feels her wiggling her body all over him under the sheets.

“Okay, what is making you so hyper, Shepard?” He chuckles, he loves when she's playful like this, the best part is when she's naughty while being playful, as it gives him an excuse to punish her.

She pokes her head out the sheets and looks up at him, “I keep thinking of last night when you were ‘eating me out’, your mandibles were tickling me.” She squeals in embarrassment.

“Eating you out?” he questions.

She hides under the sheets in embarrassment, “When you were using your tongue on me down there,” she whispers.

Now he understands and chuckles, “I love how you taste, Luna,” he whispers deeply making sure to make her squirm in pleasure.

“Garrus, shut up.” She whines poking his chest under the sheets.

“Or what?” he asks seductively and she didn’t say anything. He was going to tease her again when he felt her rub his slit. This made him tense up and groan in pleasure. As she kept rubbing he felt his plates slightly open up. It wasn’t until he felt her lick his slit that his cock fully expose itself.

“Wow, watching it come out of you was a new experience that I didn’t know I needed.” He heard her say under the sheets. Before he could reply he could feel her tongue graze his cock before taking it in her mouth.

He groans as he watches the sheets bob up and down. When he hit the back of her throat, he clutches her head above the sheets and thrusts forward.

She gags and coughs, “Lupe!” she muffles out and he lets go.

“Sorry!” He said in fear and he lifts the sheets to see her looking at him with her bright red eyes.

She giggles, holding his cock, “It’s okay, just be a bit careful when you hold my head like that. Felt your talons in my ears and you were kind of choking me when you thrust like that.” She admits while feeling embarrassed.

He stares in horror and his cock starts to slowly retreats, “Spirits, I am so sorry!” He gasps, feeling awkward about the entire situation.

Luna looks back at his cock and frowns at it starts to retreat. Climbing on top of him she looks at him with a smile.

“Garrus! It’s okay! I’m fine, you listened when I said the safe word.” She giggles and kisses his mouth plates.

It wasn’t long before he feels his cock reemerge and she guides it into her, as she straddles him. She looks down at him and grins mischievously.

“Now I am the Dom and you are my Sub.” She said, grabbing his arms, crossing his wrist together above his head, and using one of her hands to, awkwardly, hold both of them together. Satisfied with her work, she bends down and licks his neck.

He chuckles, “Oh yeah?” And thrusts deep inside of her. She gasps and grabs the pillow underneath his head with the other hand. He moans as he pushes in and out of her.

She moans, “Garrus,” and whimpers meeting him at every thrust. She then leans up, not able to hold his wrists anymore, and lays her hands on his chest grinding her body faster as he pounds deeper inside of her.

“How this,” he grunts, “for a Sub?” He gasps, and she moans louder flinging her head back and arching her back. He watches her breast bounce and grabs one of them with one of his hands, while the other grabs her waist squeezing with his talon, digging into her.

“Oh…Fuck…” She moans, as they increase in pace, and bends back towards him, to hold use his chest for support; she stares at him. He was in awe, as always, whenever he watches her eyes change. Her body starts to glow and finally her eyes were the dark abysses he, oddly, finds so damn beautiful.

“Come on Luna, come for me.” He grunts thrusting into her faster, hearing how wet she was, as he buries deep inside of her was turning him on even more.

Her entire body glows as she tightens against him, grinding harder and faster to her climax. Her black eyes look deep into his. So close, so close; she screams and a bright red/blue beam shoots out from her other hand and into the right side of Garrus’ face.

He felt burning at the right side of his face as if a rocket hit him. He flew across the room rolling into other objects before finally coming to a stop. Now his entire body was in extreme pain, he felt like he was on fire.

_“When things are hard that’s when you try harder. You pull yourself together when the going gets tough, and keep going for it; because there comes a time when no one can do it, but you can.”_

His father is right. He knew he had to do it. He knew he had to stop her. Killing Zaeed’s daughter would have broken her. He, at least, hoped he gave Laena enough time so she could stop Luna.

He suddenly starts to think of her eyes. Even when she was the one to hurt him like this, he couldn’t stop thinking of those beautiful red eyes. He wants to protect her and be strong for her; he wants there to trust again, like before.

Once again he could hear his father’s voice.

_“When something you care about needs you Garrus, I want you to have the confidence and strength to save and protect them.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys found the transitions smooth and were able to grasp the time skips x.x
> 
> Duffseye = Bullseyes trying to have a different word for Turians lol.


	20. My Last Thought Is You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Even in silence, I yearn for you

Luna’s body felt like the Normandy ran right through her. The pain was excruciating as she tried to move, or tried to talk. She couldn’t open her eyes as it felt like it was glued shut and there was nothing she could do to open them.

_“Garrus?”_

She starts to remember asking for him, but then realized she used her powers on him, and not in a pleasurable way like the times before. There was a pain in her heart as she felt guilty for what she has done. If she could go back in time right this moment, she would find a way for her father to know the Batarians were coming and they should find a way to defend themselves.

But what about Garrus? Would she have met Garrus? No, and that would be a good thing! If she didn’t meet Garrus then she wouldn’t have done what she did.

She whimpers

_“Will you trust me?” He whispers._

_“I’ll trust you.” She whispers back._

She tries to cry, but her eyes won’t open. The pain from her body was horrible, but the pain from her heart, because of what she did, was more. This was different from the time with Kaidan, this was much worst.

She truly was a freak of nature, and the only thing left to do was to just die. Let go of this life she keeps trying to live.

She wants to be normal, but she knows she will never be.

More thoughts of Garrus made her feel that pain again. Her throat felt dry and tight, unable to breathe. She clutches the sheets below her.

Sheets below her?

Luna starts to feel around and figured out she was on a bed. It would make sense that she was in the med bay, but the sheets felt…softer than what she’s known. She took a deep breath and knew from the smell she wasn’t on the Normandy. So where was she?

Giving up trying to figure out, she fell asleep.

When Luna woke up, she couldn’t move. She fought her eyelids hoping to finally get them open this time around. Giving up on her eyes, she begins to try to move her hand like before, but no alas.

How odd? Even her hands won’t move this time. Her mouth wouldn’t open either, it was as if her entire body was shut down and she couldn’t move.

_‘Get up!’_

She screams at herself

‘ _Move!’_

She begs, cries, but there were no tears. Maybe, she was stuck here with nowhere to go. She calls for Garrus, then Navi, then Kasumi, and soon after, her mother. Luna wanted her mother so badly, but sadly her body would not move.

It wasn’t until she felt herself 'get up', she knew instantly, she was experiencing sleep paralysis. This isn’t the first time having this happen to her. The first time was terrifying, but by the sixth time, she wasn’t so scared.

She felt herself sit up and look around. It was dark, very dark, so dark she couldn’t make sense of where she is, maybe it was nighttime? She could feel the heaviness from being in this state, but she fought and push herself off the bed. Who knew how far she could go, but she was going to try.

After a few tries, she finally managed to stand up from the bed. It was like a force was trying to have her go back to her body, but she needed to do this, needed to know where she was.

She got to the middle of the room before she felt herself return to her body. With determination, she sits up and starts her journey all over again.

She felt tired after the seventh time, but she knew she was progressing. Now, she was just lying there wanting to really get back up. She concentrates harder when suddenly, an image of Garrus bleeding on the floor of Purgatory appears in her mind, and she starts feeling that pain again taking over her.

Eventually, she fell asleep.

Waking up, she could hear her mother singing her lullaby, and she whimpers. The sound made her mother stop singing and touch her face.

“Lulu, are you awake?” Laena whispers.

Luna tries to nod, but she couldn’t move her neck. She whimpers again and her mother gasps.

“Luna, I am so happy you are awake,” she could hear her sniff, “You’ve been asleep for a month now. We rented a place on Eden Prime, for you, Garrus, and the others to recover.”

When she said Garrus, Luna’s heart starts to race. The heart monitor picks it up and she could hear her heartbeat fast.

“Luna, I know why your heart is beating like this, but you need to focus on getting better and not Garrus. All I could tell you is that he’s healing, but is in a coma,” Luna whimpers, “I know you feel saddened by this, but please, Luna, don’t let it take you away from me. Right now your body is delicate. You weigh only fifty-six pounds.”

_‘Fifty-six!?’_

“Don’t worry, you are recovering your weight slowly; but right now as your body recovers, you need to also recover your mental strength.”

Her mother left after telling her how much she loves her, and she won’t get any visitors for a bit as she heals.

_‘Garrus is in a coma.’_

Hearing that made her feel horrible because she was the reason why he is there. A part of her wants to be held by him again, while another part, wants him to leave her alone from now on. The thought of hurting him again weighted on her greatly.

She could feel his mouth on hers, kissing her deeply, and holding her tight. But she knew those days were over. Gone were the days of flirting and laughing with him. Gone were the days of crying on his shoulder. Gone were the days of trust.

He will hate her just like Kaidan.

_“I really hate when you compare me to your ex”_

She remembers him saying, but she couldn’t help herself! She went too far this time! It was her fault why he is in the coma! Kaidan was never hurt by her powers, but he was still greatly affected by them.

_‘God, I hate myself so much’_

She thought, as she whimpers, hating the fact she couldn’t see or move, but mostly for hurting Garrus.

She was obsessed with the thought, but how could she not be? After the break up with Kaidan, she tried so hard to never get to that point, and the sad part? She didn’t, instead, she went past that point.

_“Will you trust me?” He whispers._

_“I’ll trust you.” She whispers back._

Thinking of their words again made her want to cry out. The trust will never be the same, he will hate and fear her. She was a freak and she hated it.

The next morning, she woke up to her mother singing again and for a moment she allowed herself to remember the times of being in her arms as she comforts her.

When Laena touches her arm, she slowly rubs it as she kept singing, and Luna whimpers.

“It’s okay my little moon, everything will be okay.” Her mother whispers.

_“Even as a grown adult, I will always be your little moon.”_

When her mother left, Luna was alone again hearing her heart monitor. There wasn’t much she could do but lay there.

_“Garrus, I wish you were here right now.”_

***

A month later Luna was finally able to open her eyes. The first thing she saw, was how large the room was, full of hospital equipment. She was by the window, which was a bonus because Eden Prime, from where she sat, was spectacular.

The green hills and large trees, couple with multiple buildings, but not too much to overtake the nature of this planet. Even if it was nighttime, everything was quiet, peaceful, and beautiful. She blinks, sucking in her breath before releasing.

She wanted to stand up and move.

Luna tries over and over to move her body, but just like before, it didn’t work. She was able to turn her head to look at her arm that wouldn’t move. It was thin, very thin.

 _“I wonder how much I weigh now.”_ She wonders.

As she tries to move her mouth to speak, nothing happens. Her body was going to take a while to be functional, but for how long? She laid there, for hours trying her hardest to figure out her body.

Tears begin to fall from her eyes knowing she was stuck like this for a very long time. She felt trapped and useless.

Worst of all, she just wanted Garrus.

She wanted to talk to him and say she was sorry. There was so much pain in her heart thinking about the Turian. Her mother told her not to, but she would always find herself in this position, thinking about him and hurting.

She turns to look outside staring at the scenery trying to calm her ailing heart.

_“Garrus, I miss you. I wish…I wish I could take it all back, I’m so sorry.”_

She was still looking out the window watching as the sun came up when her mother walks in. Laena gasps in surprise and walks over to her a smile on her face.

“You can open your eyes!? That is great! That means the healing is progressing beautifully. Soon, you’ll be able to walk again. Think you could stand up?”

Luna looks at her mother and shook her head, no.

“Alright, that’s okay. Once you can stand, we will be able to weigh you again. For now, just rest and keep healing. You won't be able to be paid during this time, but the amount of money we have saved will be enough for a long time. So I don’t want you to worry about any financial issues.”

Luna nods as she looks down weakly, her body now wanting some rest after staying up for so long when she woke up hours ago.

Seeing the tiredness in Luna’s eyes, Leana walks over to the window and closes the shades before turning back to her, smiling.

“Rest some more, my moon. I can see how tired you are.” Laena kissing her forehead and walks out of the room. Luna’s eyes were staring at the spot her mother was, and slowly, she closes her eyes, falling asleep.

A week goes by and Luna can finally lift her arms. This made her happy, knowing her body was coming back under her control. When the door to her room opens up, she was met with Navi walking inside shyly. Tears start to form from her eyes and Navi looks alarmed.

“Oh no! Did I do something?! I’m so sorry, Lulu!” She shouts and Luna winces for a moment. This made Navi gasps and covers her mouth. Luna than uses her arms to gesture, she wants a hug, and Navi’s mandibles shake before walking over to her and hugging her tightly.

_“I love you Navi, I love you so much. I’m so glad you are here.”_

Navi pulls away, and just sat there, not saying anything. They sat in silence for a while before Navi pulls out her Omni-tool.

“I have some movies we could watch? Mommy told me some entertainment could do you some good.” Luna nods after Navi asks and Navi puts a movie on the hospital room screen.

As they were watching Navi’s Omni-tool starts to chime. If it happened once, Luna didn’t mind it, but five times? What is going on?

Turning to her little sister, who was now typing away on her Omni-tool with an embarrassed expression; Luna gave her a look.

Navi coughs and her mandible twitch, “It’s nothing to worry about Lulu, promise.” She said nervously, before another chime happened, “You know what, I should have muted it!” After some more typing, she turns her Omni-tool off and went back to watching the movie.

Luna didn’t stop looking at her though, she was curious and wanted to know who her sister was talking to. Navi’s eyes looked at her from the side before going back to the movie. Luna smiles and starts to poke at her mandibles.

“No, Lulu stop!” She whines, crossing her arms. For the next two to three minutes Luna would poke her cheek causing Navi to groan in annoyance, “Okay! I was just talking to a guy! Would you stop poking me!?”

 _“What guy?”_ She asks with her look and Navi starts to play with her fingers.

“He’s just a friend,” she said quietly, “Please! Can we not talk about it? I can assure you, nothing is happening, he is just a friend.”

 _“But who is he!?”_ Luna screams in her heard giving Navi a wide-eyed look.

“No one important.” She continues to play with her fingers.

Luna narrows her eyes and starts poking again. She knew how to get Navi to talk.

Poke

Poke

Poke

“Oh, My God!” She shouts, “Its James okay! James Vega, but we’re only friends! I didn’t want to tell you because I know you would think I like him, when I don’t, we are just friends!” She explains huffing and looking away from Luna.

Luna smiles and touches Navi’s arm causing Navi to look at her. As they look into each other's eyes, Navi sighs.

“Thank you, for not…teasing me. He’s a good friend, and he has a girlfriend.” She looks down, “I told him you were hurt, and that I’m waiting for you to get better. He just wants to make sure I’m alright.”

Luna looks away sadden at the fact her sister is hurting because of her. Everyone is hurting because of her, this made tears form from her eyes as her lips tremble.

 _“I’m so sorry…I’m so sorry,”_ She kept repeating.

Navi didn’t say anything, just places her head on top of Luna’s.

Navi giggles, “Don’t be sorry Lulu, it's okay. I’m just happy you are alive and getting better. I don’t blame you for anything. I love you.” She whispers.

More tears fell from Luna and they hugged.

_“I love you too, Navi. By the way, Garrus, we need to look into this, James Vega, guy when you wake up. Deal?”_

***

Luna was bored, still unable to leave the bed. It’s been eleven weeks since the incident. She tried asking her mother about Garrus, but would always be told to not to think about him and only focus on her health.

The door to her room opens up, and Karin walks in with a smile on her face. Luna already tenses up.

“Oh relax Commander, I don’t intend to give you any medication at the moment. Just coming in to see how you are doing.”

Luna opens up her mouth to try to speak, but only a croak came out.

“Luna, you mustn’t talk, remember you still need to heal your vocal cords,” Karin said with a smile. As she uses her Omni-tool to study Luna’s body, Luna stares outside wishing to leave this room.

“I want to see how much you weight. Would you like to try standing up again?” She asks, and instantly, Luna nods, looking at Karin.

With some help, Luna was sitting on the bed with her feet dangling from the floor. Add some mental gymnastics, and she was able to push herself into standing up. As she stood there, Luna was celebrating her success, when a dizzy spell hit her.

Dropping back down on the bed she looks up at Karin asking her what’s happening.

“You stood up a bit too fast. Try to slow down next time.” Karin explained.

Luna nods before slowly pushing herself off the bed. She took a step and almost fell. Karin grabs her, and Luna gave her a sad look.

“It’s going to take some time to relearn things, Luna. Why don’t you sit down so I could grab the scale? Then you can stand up and I can weight you.”

As she sat down, Luna begins to think about how long it’s going to take for her to completely recover. How long, will she not know what’s going on with Garrus? Is he still in a coma? Does he hate her so much he will disappear, leaving her, just like Kaidan?

She wants to laugh at her brain, of course, she automatically thinks about Kaidan.

Kaidan

Kaidan

Kaidan

She sighs, disappointed in herself. This was Garrus, not Kaidan.

She stops mentally beating herself when Karin came back with the scale and helped Luna stand upon it.

Seventy-two pounds

A smile appears on her face. Must be all the solid food she's been eating.

“Looks like you are gaining back your weight. More time and you will be back to your original weight in no time.” She said a smile on her face.

“Ga...us” Luna croaks, pleading with Karin.

Karin bit her lips, “Your mother told me not to talk about him to you.” She whispers, and Luna whimpers. Karin sighs and crossing her arms, “If you can walk from your bed to the door on your own, I will try to convince your mother to allow you to see him. How does that sound?” She asks.

Luna smiles brightly and nods.

“Would you like to shower? Or would prefer to be hand washed?” Karin asked and Luna glares shaking her head, no.

Luna hates being hand washed only because, she felt like a damn baby and it was embarrassing, luckily it was only her mother and Karin that would help her.

Standing inside the bathroom, with the help of Karin, they slowly took her clothes off. As Karin got things ready, she stood there, looking at the mirror and was given the full view of her body state. It made her want to cry in disgust. Her face is skinny to the point it’s sunken in. Her usual milk chocolate skin tone was now even lighter, couldn’t even call it milk chocolate.

She was thin, very thin. She was only 5’7 at Seventy-two pounds, but why does she look so sickly? She was used to being heavier and fitter, not this thin, but still, she looks like a horror movie monster. The worst part that made her want to cry was her hair. Her mother told her she has grown some of it back since the incident, but it was not like before.

It seems so trivial, but her hair was important to her. When she was a slave her hair dropped out, leaving only patches on her head. Having short hair reminded her of those days and she felt ugly with it.

Her hair was also used to hide a lot of her scars and was mid-back length. Now? Now, it didn’t even reach her shoulder. Even as a small afro, her mother states, it just wasn’t what it used to be.

Shallow? Yes, but she didn’t care. Even in the military for that short while, she made sure to put it in a ponytail or bun when on missions. She knew how to handle long hair on the field, she wasn’t a damn idiot.

With a sigh and help from Karin, she walks into the shower and felt the warm water touch her body.

_“Hair starts from somewhere Luna. Just need to grow it out again.”_

For days, Luna trained her body to get up and move. She needs and wants to get out of this room because she was going stir crazy.

As she was almost halfway to the door, it opens up to see Kasumi standing there.

“Do you need help, Shep?” She asks, and Luna declines as she pushes herself to the limit.

She finally made it halfway and beams at her progress. Kasumi chuckles as she sat in a chair watching her friend have a weird celebratory dance. After helping Luna lay back down on the bed, Kasumi brings up her Omni-tool.

“Now I don’t want you to freak out, but I recorded your fight with Jack.”

Luna’s eyes went wide as Kasumi starts to show her the fight. She never thought watching her fight would be like watching an action movie or one of those animated shows. A part of her thought it was really cool, but another part of her hates that she got to this state and…hurt Garrus.

Pushing Kasumi’s hand away, she sighs and looks out the window. Knowing why she pushed her arm away, Kasumi touches her shoulders, gaining her attention.

“I know you blame yourself, hell, I blame myself every day for Keiji’s death and Purgatory, but that doesn’t mean you can’t learn. It’s why I recorded it, not to make you feel bad, but to help you understand the potential if you learn to control it.”

 _“You sound like my mother.”_ Luna thought, narrowing her eyes at Kasumi.

Kasumi laughs, instantly knowing what she was thinking, “You know mama Shep is pretty wise. We did learn a thing or two from her.” She said smiling.

 _“Yes, she knows everything.”_ Luna thought rolling her eyes and giving off gestures.

Kasumi looks at her weird not understanding and this made Luna slowly move her mouth for her to understand.

Kasumi laughs, “She doesn’t know everything! The Shadow Broker does, but she does know about your powers and how it works. I mean, it’s kind of weird you don’t want to learn from her. Then again her training was…I get why you don’t want to go down her path.”

Luna looks down in her hands. She tried following her mother’s footsteps, but it wasn’t easy, it wasn’t something she liked nor wanted to do. Luna needed to learn it her own way, not like her mother. The best she could do that is similar to her mother is meditate and even that feels hard.

Her mind races too fast, thinking of too much. Her mother told her its okay, to let the thoughts flow, but its’ not that easy. Her thoughts scare her and the more she was in her thoughts, the more she felt, she panics.

“Mama Shep used to always tell us to be patient. That never works out with us, we loved to move and do things too much. I think it’s because of the trauma.” Kasumi whispers looking at Luna, “I think we need to move all the time because we are scared to relive what we’ve been through. So we need to move and do things without any patience.” Tears started to fall from her eyes and Luna touches her arm.

Something happened to Kasumi and Luna was confused. Patience wasn’t too hard, for Kasumi sure, but not for Luna. Her mentor thought her about patience; her mother taught her about patience; she was taught so much patience she can sometimes get annoyed by patience, but she understood. Luna was a patient person if she wasn’t her job would be very hard.

Kasumi though was not a patient person. She loves to be on the move exploring and stealing. Its why, sometimes, she would get herself into trouble, but could usually get herself out.

Until Keiji

When Keiji died, Kasumi became more reckless and extremely impatient. She left the ship and did her own thing, which made Luna very upset at first, but Kasumi is a grown woman and she could do whatever she wants.

But being impatient can cause a lot of problems, like Purgatory. Like, getting caught by a guy who wants you dead. Like, thinking irrationally and creating a plan that was so stupid! It caused a guy you have gained feelings for, to be hurt and not by the enemies, but…by you.

Luna closes her eyes feeling the despair sinking in.

“I’m sorry Shep, I really am. You told me plenty of times to just stop and wait, but I couldn’t. Hock took him away from me and all I wanted was to have him back.” She places her head in her hands.

Luna reaches out and touches her back slowly rubbing it.

“If it wasn’t for my impatience, I would have waited for you and received the proper help I needed. If I just waited you wouldn’t be in this state and Garrus wouldn’t, still, be in a coma,” This made Luna’s eyes widened.

_“Garrus is still in a coma!? It’s been two months since the attack on Purgatory!”_

“I wouldn’t have been raped.” This made Luna grab the sheets tightly, and Kasumi stops talking, in shock, she just said that out loud.

_“What?”_

Everything was tense and quiet. Kasumi couldn’t breathe as she thought about what she said. She’s been doing a good job holding this information in, and if Garrus was to wake up she would have told him not to speak of it.

Turning her head to Luna, who just stares at her, Kasumi drew her breath in, “That was a lie, sorry,” Kasumi coughs and tries to laugh.

Luna looks at her hurt that her best friend would lie to her like this. Was she not trustworthy enough for Kasumi to speak to her about this?

Kasumi looks at the screen playing a comedy show that Luna likes. It was relaxing, but feeling Luna’s gaze on her felt odd. She wanted to run and get as far away from Luna as possible. She didn’t want to feel her pity gaze she hates pity.

Luna isn’t like that

Kasumi sighs, knowing Luna is never like that to her. Pity? No, she wouldn’t pity her. Just want to be there for her like when they were younger.

Turning her head to Luna, who was now watching the show with a sad gaze, Kasumi finally gained the courage to talk about it.

“It was this Turian mercenary, Blue Suns, in case you didn’t know! “ She laughs, but seeing Luna’s face, made her turn serious and sad.

Kasumi sigh, “They wanted information out of me and I was a tough cookie. All those years of being beaten by Otuosan helped keep me quiet. Thanks, Otuosan,” She laughs bitterly, before looking back at Luna’s red eyes, “They realized they needed to do something else. They wanted to break me, which was going to involve a lot more…tools for the job. Tools such as knives, guns, water…you get it.” She went silent for a while.

Luna didn’t egg her own, she wanted Kasumi to tell her at her own pace. Was her plan right? Maybe she needed to think irrationally to get to Kasumi, but look at what cost? Herself and Garrus. Luna looks back at Kasumi who was taking deep breaths.

_“I’ll do it again, I’ll do it for anyone I love.”_

Kasumi laughs again bitterly, “This Turian took a liking to me and asked for permission to have some fun before they ‘turn me ugly’,” She rolls her eyes, “The Warden allowed it. I mean it’s a fucking prison, full of horrible criminals, own by horrible criminals! Why wouldn’t there be unethical bullshit happening inside its walls.” Kasumi growls in anger.

She calms a smile forms on her face, “Garrus though, he helped me. He could have easily left me there not knowing who was behind that door to look for you. But he helped me. I guess it was the goal of being there, but at that point was that the goal for him?” Kasumi asks, looking at Luna who bit her lips.

“He really cares for you Shep. I know mama Shep said not talk about him to you, but I want you to know he really cares for you.” She touches her shoulder, “I don’t know if he’s going to be the same when he wakes up. I don’t know how he would react to you. What I do know, he’s still going to care for you, Luna.”

_“I really care about you too, Garrus, I just hope Kasumi is right, and you still care about me.”_

***

A few days later, Luna was using the wall to walk with Kasumi cheering her on she sat there. When she was going to reach the door, her mother appears with a smile on her face.

“I see you are still pushing yourself. I just want to say, don’t exert yourself, my moon.”

Luna fans her away and rolls her eyes at the words.

Laena sat down on another chair with her legs crossed as Luna starts to make her journey back to the bed.

“I came here to inform you about Jack, Zaeed’s daughter. She has woken up and I had to calm her down before she does anything stupid.” Laena said as her eyes darken for a moment at calm.

Kasumi tilts her head, “Is she still awake?” She asks.

Laena smiles, “Of course she is. Right now she only wants to deal with me and Karin. I do worry when Karin is alone with her so I asked her to only enter the room when I am there.” She sighs and looks out the window, “Jack is very explosive and I wouldn’t want my best friend to be hurt by her.”

Luna finally made it to her bed and sat down looking at her mother waiting for her to speak more.

“Zaeed has healed, but he needs more time. Although he wants to speak with her, I forbid it since Jack said if he came near her, she would kill him.” She said sadly.

Kasumi bit her lips, “Did he abuse her?” She whispers.

“No, Zaeed was betrayed by a former partner. This former partner killed her mother and sold her to Cerberus or a Cerberus facility that gone rouge. This facility proceeded to do experiments on her; she blames everyone and everything.”

Kasumi puts her legs on the desk in the room much to Laena’s annoyance, “She’s pretty strong mama Shep. How do you deal with her?”

“Simple, I overpower her.” She crosses her arms, “She is strong just like Luna,” She turns to looks at Luna, “But I am stronger and she has learned that. I want Kelly to talk to her. I am not a therapist, I can only teach mindfulness and control of one's self. I do not know how to help people the way a therapist can.” She smiles, “Not my field of specialty.”

_“Jack huh? I wonder if we could…be friends. Seems like she suffered the same way as me, but with humans.”_

Luna sighs sadly and Laena notices.

“So I’m just going to go out on a limb here and ask,” Kasumi looks at Laena, “Was Jack experimented on with the same drug like you and Luna?”

Laena stares at her, “Yes, Jack was experimented on with the drug, sadly. It seems the power was lying dormant inside of her, ready to explode if given the opportunity.” She states.

“Why now?”

“I questioned her about her travels, and she said, she never felt this unprecedented anger before. This anger triggered the powers within. This scenario is similar to Luna’s, who has never been in that state since we escape the Batarian ship, until now.” Laena said looking at Luna, who looks away thinking of what happened and Garrus.

“So what triggered this ‘power within’,” Kasumi said.

“Zaeed. She didn’t need to tell me, I figure she would be extremely angry at Zaeed. What I didn’t know, was that she was experimented on with the drug as well.” Laena sighs, “When Jack saw her father; she lost it. There was no control, and the powers were unlocked. That’s as many details, I will get into. That is their life, their drama, and I have no right telling it.” She ended.

Kasumi laughs, “Starting to see a pattern here. Trauma makes you strong. What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger. That kind of bullshit.” She laughs harder, but inside she was crying.

Laena eyes her, “No, you shouldn’t think of trauma as something to make you stronger, Kasumi. It paints the picture that you need trauma to be stronger.” Kasumi grew silent, “A better saying is ‘What doesn’t kill you, changes you. For better or for worse.'” She said.

“After that ship, I knew, I was different. I knew I changed. I was a broken woman with no purpose in life, but to take care of my daughters. I lived, but I wasn’t living.” She looks at Luna, “but then I grew resilient. You see, trauma might make you strong for a moment. Have you burst down your enemies in a blaze of glory, but true strength comes from within. So, to me, it’s the resilience you build after that makes you strong. Post-traumatic growth, if you want to get technical.”

Laena smiles at them, “Learning mindfulness, coming to peace with the past, self-compassion, and many other ways will help you fight against your demons. The best part, you don’t need trauma to do these things. Trauma was only a stepping stone that just happens to force me to do these things.” She softly said looking at the both of them.

“It wasn’t easy, trust me, to finally get to the place I am at now. Sometimes I still get, ‘triggered’, I am no God, I am only Human and I could only take so much, but I would like to think I found a healthy balance in my life. With that, I’ve become strong.” She smiles, “Just know, I am always here to help with meditation and mindfulness, it really does help.”

Laena gets up and stretched her body, feeling a little sore.

“I think you and Jack should get to know each other one day, Luna. Jack and I have talked to one another and she relates a lot to us. Right now, she needs people to lean on and to help open her up.” Laena starts walking towards the door, “I’m going to talk to Zaeed and give him some parenting tips. Think about what I said you two.” She said before leaving.

“Thanks for coming to my Shepard talk,” Kasumi jokes, and they both giggle.

 _“Resilience huh?”_ Luna wonders, as they watch a movie.

After an hour, Kasumi stands up and smiles at Luna, “Okay Shep, I have to go and see how Jacob is doing. I’ll talk to you later.” After hugging her, Kasumi went invisible and left the room.

_“Why does she need to go invisible to see Jacob? Garrus, do you know?”_

***

“One hundred and ten pounds!” Laena said, smiling at her daughter.

Luna grins, as she walks back to her bed feeling tired. She was finally about to walk to the door, but her body was still weak.

“We can starts more training tomorrow after breakfast?” Her mother asks and Luna nods getting into bed.

It was nighttime now on Eden Prime and all she wanted to do was sleep until morning. Kasumi keeps her up to date about Garrus which was nice. Sadly, sometimes when Kasumi would leave, she would fall into despair thinking of Garrus but would fight against it.

“Do you want anything special tomorrow? I’m cooking!” Her mother says happily.

Luna shrugs still unable to talk. She’s been trying but only croaking sounds would escape her lips and her mother strictly told her not to if she wants her voice back.

“I’ll make your favorite then. Some Hominy Corn porridge for breakfast and stew peas with rice for dinner. Finally got some shipment of oxtail for my dinner, God, this is going to be a feast.” She said happily while walking out the room, before stopping, “Sleep well, my moon.” And she left.

Luna looks outside staring at the lands from her room. It wasn’t long until she fell asleep.

Waking up it was still dark and looking at her Omni-tool it told her four in the morning on Eden Prime. This made her sigh since she did sleep a nice six hours, but now she was bored with nothing to do.

 _“Couldn’t I sleep for the eight or ten?”_ She thought, annoyed.

_“Why are you up so early? I thought Humans need eight to ten hours of sleep.”_

Hearing his voice in her head made her heartache for him. Feeling determined she got out of bed and begin to walk. Thankfully Kasumi told her where Garrus’ room was located.

It took a long time to finally walk down the hall to Garrus’ room, but she did it. As she stood there looking at the door her heart was racing. Pounding in her chest like a jackhammer.

Her hand tries to touch the door, but it stops, hovering above the door; she didn’t want it to open.

Not yet, at least.

Taking a deep breath, she tries to calm herself.

_“You haven’t seen him for three and a half months, Luna, since you been awake, just open the door.”_

Her hands were shaking as she stares at the door to his room and slowly tries to force her hand to touch the green symbol to open. The. Damn. Door!

Open

Open

Open

She walks away holding the wall for support.

_“I…I can’t.”_

For days she would do this when it was night time and no one was around. She would get out of bed, walk towards Garrus’ room, hoping to open the door and look at him. Each time she would get closer to gaining her confidence to open the door, but ultimately never do.

There was one positive from doing this every day, her body was getting used to her again and she didn’t need the wall for support as much anymore.

Her mother was weighing and taking her blood pressure again which means this would be the perfect time to ask her if she could walk around Eden Prime.

“You are gaining weight nicely, Luna.” She whispers when Luna touches her arm, “Hmm?”

Luna points outside and gave her a walking gesture. Laena follows her hand and thought about it.

“If so, you will need an escort.” This made Luna roll her eyes and cross her arms, “I know you want to go out alone, but what if something might happen? I need to keep eyes on you.”

Luna sighs, and looks outside with a frown on her face. She wanted to have her freedom back and breathe the fresh air. Looking back at her mother, she nods in understanding.

“I’ll make it easy for you. What do you think of having Kasumi with you as you take your walks?” Her mother smiles at her and Luna smiles back nodding at the thought of being with her friend as she walks.

Two weeks go by with Luna walking around Eden Prime with Kasumi. She still made sure to not talk until her mother told her when. Kasumi was a bit confused about how it worked.

“So Shep, how long does it take for you to talk again? It’s been what? Three and a half months since you woke up?”

Luna puts up her hand showing her five digits.

“So last time you had this problem it took five months?”

Luna nods and wanted to say something, but couldn’t.

_“But that was, last time, who knows how long it will last this time.”_

“Hey, look, a hot spring bath hotel up ahead. Want to go and enjoy it?” Kasumi grins happily pointing to the building. Luna was curious, after all these years, she never been to a hot spring hotel. The only time she has seen or heard of them was through the extranet.

With a nod, they made their way to the hot springs.

Walking inside the building there weren’t many people around. Two Asari were talking to each other quietly while a man tries to woo a woman in the far left of the room.

“Come on Ash it would be fun me, you, and a private hot spring.” He murmurs to the woman who rolled her eyes in disgust.

“It’s Ashley Williams, not Ash, and if you don’t get away from me right now, Gene. I will punch the living shit out of you.” She growls trying to get away from the asshole who just groans and follows her like a lost puppy.

“Hey, Shep! Do you want to go private or do you mind public? We could afford private, which comes with a room; but public is cheaper, which doesn’t come with a room.” Kasumi asks while looking through the options. Luna looks over her shoulder and clicks an option with a shrug.

“Public it is.”

As they sat down in the warm water Luna groans in pleasure feeling the muscles in her, relax. The water was the best thing in the world as she sinks into it.

“Oh yeah, this,” Kasumi groans, “This is just what I needed.”

They relaxed for some minutes before Luna felt Kasumi touch her. Turning toward her she gave her a questionable look.

“I want to tell you about Jacob because I promised him beforehand that I would help him get some information about his brother. Right now, he’s still recovering, which thank you by the way for saving him.” She smiles at Luna who nods.

“Well, he’s a smuggler who helped me a few times get to places I needed to go. Told him about this mission, and asked him for help, in exchange I would ask my friend, which is you, for some information about a ship his brother was on that disappeared.” Kasumi starts playing with the water, “I know this is cutting in on your big mission, but if you can please help him, I would be forever grateful Shep. He just wants closure.” She said, and Luna could tell there was something more than friendship here.

Taking in this information, Luna nods in understanding.

Kasumi sighs in relief, “Now, I do know you need to go to Noveria, I talked to mama Shep before coming to you, so maybe after Noveria we could go?” Kasumi asks with a smile on her face.

When Luna nods again Kasumi claps her hands and beams, “Thank you so much Shep! Jacob did so much for me it’s the least I could do.”

Luna starts to make hand gestures wondering if Kasumi and Jacob were together. Kasumi feigns ignorance shooing Luna away, but watching her face turn red was hilarious.

As she laughs, Kasumi slashes her in the face, which made her gasps.

This is war!

_“I saw the rooms here, Garrus, once you wake up, maybe we could check into one for the night? Just like our first time.”_

***

She was outside his door again it has been five months with him in his coma and right now she was going to finally do it. She worked so hard to push herself to get here. Each day she knew she was getting closer to getting inside to finally see him.

Open

She took a deep breath and lays her hands on the door. Her heart was racing and she wanted to run away.

Open

Tears were falling from her eyes, not a lot just a few droplets as she kept trying to push herself to open the damn door.

Open

_“Come on Luna! Open it! See him! Garrus!”_

She presses the button and it slides open.

Luna stood there with her mouth wide open looking at the sleeping Turian on the bed. The room was just like hers, large with the bed near the window, hospital equipment around, and a heart monitor.

He had a normal heartbeat.

She walks slowly towards him trying to calm her very fast-beating heart. Each step felt like gravity was pushing down on her.

She was scared.

 _“Garrus…I’m so sorry,”_ She thought.

When she got to him, the light from the moon of the planet shined on him. Nighttime was always her favorite time even as a child. Always pretty stars to look at.

When she saw his face, she saw the massive scar on the right side of his face. From under his eye to his mandibles and it hurts to see this. She did this, she was the one to ruin his face.

_“Garrus…please forgive me”_

She reaches out and touches the scar lightly trying to hold in her sobs. Fear crept into her, telling her she will be hated, and he wants nothing to do with her.

His heartbeat was slowly increasing, but she didn’t notice.

His mark, on her shoulder, tingled.

Feeling his bondmark was odd. It wasn’t like the mark has special powers, she knows it’s just her mind reminding her it’s there. Reminding her of their connection. Still, it felt odd, but in a good way. Anytime she feels intense emotions towards him it would tingle and it confused her, but she didn’t want to question it.

_‘If you go looking for trouble, you will find it.’_

Her mother would tell her that when she was a teen on Omega doing just that. Looking for answers on why his mark tingles, is just going to open Pandora’s Box, which she knew she wasn’t ready for yet. So, she will gladly continue to feel that sensation when she has heightened emotions for him without an answer.

Does it mean he’s her soulmate? Is that how it works? Luna squeezes her eyes tightly, trying to push away the questions.

_“Don’t do it, Luna, don’t ask stupid questions. Soulmates don’t exist.”_

Still, she found herself wondering as her eyes fell onto his bondmark. They could easily take it off, well he could. If she tried there would be a repeat of Purgatory and no one wants that.

Reaching over, she touches her mark on him tracing it. An electric feeling course through her body and she shivers as memories of them ran through her brain.

 _“My Mate,”_ She thought unconsciously as her whole body was feeling hot as she continues to touch him. It wasn’t sexual she was feeling, but something else, something she didn’t want to admit.

_‘I like you’_

She swallows, not having to will to push thought away, she allows it to float in the air around her.

_‘I like you’_

His heartbeat was picking up.

Looking away from her mark, on him, she pulls her attention towards his body noting the burn like scars on the right side. She swallows as she pulls the sheets away from his torso and bit her lips. It wasn’t just his face his entire right side was hit.

Covering her face with her hands she quietly sobs.

“I..am..so..rry.” She croaks, at this moment she didn’t care what her mother has warned. She deserves nothing more than pain for what she has done to someone she cares about.

His heartbeats start to become louder, she slightly notices.

Although she saved Kasumi, she wishes she did it differently. She wishes she listened to him when he said it was a bad idea. Garrus was right and she was wrong, but she wanted to save her friend so badly she didn’t see reason.

“I..ho..pe…you..don..t…lea..ve…me…like..h..e..did..” She croaks again as she sobs in her hands with her eyes closed.

His heartbeats were louder, faster, and she felt herself drowning in the noise. The guilt and shame, for what she has done, was so damn loud at her like the heart monitor!

Thinking about Kaidan's expression after her break down made her sob again, and now Garrus would give her the same expression, fear. How could she do that to him? Why couldn’t she control herself? Why must she be this freak? Why must she have this curse!? If only she wasn’t born!

“I really hate when you compare me to him.” He quietly gasps.

Luna’s face shot up to look at Garrus’s blue eyes staring deeply into hers. Her lips tremble as the moonlight bathe on them. Seeing him awake made his mark tingle and her heart race.

Garrus, weakly, touches her cheek, and his mandibles twitch, in happiness, while looking into her red eyes. Her hand lays on top of his as more tears fell from her eyes.

His heart monitor kept beating fast.

He took a deep breath, “I told you before Luna, you’re not going to scare me away that easily.” His voice was raspy, from lack of use, but it was still deep and sexy.

_"Garrus, I've missed you."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The hardest part of this chapter was having a realistic weight with the look for Luna. I'm going to need you guys to just suspend your beliefs, thanks, love you! XD


	21. The Fear Inside of Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Garrus wakes up, but the trauma of Purgatory still haunts him.

Garrus was floating, at least that’s what he thinks he was doing, and all he could see was himself. As he ‘float’ he stares at the emptiness around him, a dark abyss, like her eyes.

He suddenly felt pain rush through the right side of his face and body. There was this hot burning sensation that wouldn’t stop and it made him want to scream. Garrus felt pain before, gunshot wound, punch in the face, even a swift kick down below, pain wasn’t new to him, but this was different, this was a burning sort of pain; he felt like someone poured acid onto his skin and he couldn’t stop himself from feeling it.

“Make it stop!” He screams twisting his body, and clawing at his face begging for it to stop; but nothing happens, he was in this personal hell and it doesn’t look like it’s going to change. The burning was so intense he felt as if he was melting, that his entire body was going to dissolve itself.

All of the senses were getting out of control. He could smell his melting body, taste his blood, feel the burning intensify as time passes, and when he picks his right hand up he could actively see his skin melt off his arm.

“Hurry!” He hears in the darkness.

“Quick Karin! We need to give him the medication!” Garrus couldn’t think, his mind and body were too much in pain.

“Were not going to lose you Garrus, I’ll make sure of that!” The voice was of a woman, a woman who knows.

The pain suddenly stops and he could breathe. Taking in a deep breath, he could feel him drifting and his eyes closing.

“Surgery….Father…..”

Garrus blinks and opens his eyes, but of course, it’s just darkness and all he could see was himself. At least he thinks it was himself.

“Mandible…..Coma….”

He was confused about what those words mean, and why were they brought up, but he felt too tired to figure out. Floating, as if in space where the stars are, Garrus chuckles almost drunk.

“I’m finally dead.” He whispers, before allowing himself to curl into a ball as he floats in this dark space, never wanting to get up.

“After all this time of wanting the satisfaction of death, I finally received it.” He thought about his deceased team and wonder if he would be with them in this afterlife. Is this the afterlife? Just a black hole of nothing? Maybe. This is what he deserves for all the wrongs that he did, nothing.

He begins to think about her beautiful teal eyes, allowing himself to fall deeper into the darkness.

“Hey Boss”, said Gunther, and Garrus slowly sat up, looking at him in shock. A smile on the Human’s face as he sat there squatting.

“Why are you always brooding? Come on Boss, this is the afterlife, live a little,” Kane slapped him on the back, and Garrus turns around to see the one-eyed man grinning at him. Garrus wants to chuckle at the joke, but all he could do was stare in shock.

“I know how to make him stop brooding, bombs.” Malik laughs from his left, and Garrus turns to see the Salarian bringing out his arms to showcase a bomb.

“You know boss, bombs would create wounds, which in a way, means you still need a medic,” Grindal said and kept talking never letting up. Garrus can feel his emotions getting out of control, wanting to scream in happiness seeing his old crew.

“Geez, Grindal, do you ever shut up?” Shila laughs, slapping her knee, and Garrus holds his head in his hands trying not to get overwhelmed with his emotions.

“Are you okay boss? You don’t look so good.” Garrus looks up to see Jin’in, as he places his hand on his shoulder, a sad smile on his face.

“Jin….I’m so sorry….I don’t know what happened to Nalah after….” Garrus chokes ups and Jin smiles.

“It’s okay Boss, I don’t blame you. We all don’t blame you. You were the best thing that ever happened to us. If it wasn’t for you, we would have just been people no one gives a damn about. You gave a damn about us, and we thank you.” Garrus looks into his eyes as his mandibles shake.

All eleven of them stood before him telling him how great of a leader he was and how much he changed their life. Garrus closes his eyes and smiles feeling the relief he’s been craving for so long after their deaths.

“Garrus,” He hears and looks up to see a smiling Mayre looking at him. He stood up quickly and walks over to her as if a hypnotizing effect.

“Mayre,” he whispers holding her head in his hands. Their heads touch in comfortable silence, his crew smiles for him, before disappearing.

Lifting his head, he looks at Mayre in the eyes and so much was being said without saying a word. His heart was beating as face as a moving sky car and all he wants was to be with this woman right here.

They hug tightly and he closes his eyes. When he opens his eyes he notices the change of scenery, which was his apartment on the Citadel before….she died.

Giving her a pain expression, he looks at her in confusion, but she smiles and touches his face before pulling away from his arms.

“Why don’t we eat? You must be hungry.” She said softly.

Garrus went to sit down at the table,

_“Garrus?”_

He turns around trying to figure out where that came from, but all he saw was a window. He felt crazy as he sat down at the table about to speak.

_“Garrus.”_

He turns around, again, hoping to catch the owner of the voice, but there was no one.

“Is everything alright Garrus?” Mayre asks, looking at him weirdly.

“Yea-”

_“Big Guy”_

Garrus stands up quickly and looks around the apartment for the voice again, trying to figure out where the hell it was coming from.

_“G…Garrus”_

He looks behind him and saw Mayre looking at him again worried presenting on her face. She reaches to touch him, and when she does, he calms down.

“Sorry,” he whispers and Mayre nods walking away back to her task of sharing the food.

_“I’m so sorry Garrus,”_

He tries to ignore it.

_“Garrus”_

No, he won’t look behind him there was no one there.

“Garrus, I was thinking maybe we could…finally do it.” Mayre whispers, walking over to him with a plate of his favorite food.

“Is this Panki?” He asks.

Mayre claps her hand in excitement, “Yes! I know it’s not the same as your mother’s, but I wanted to make something you love.” She said scratching her mandible.

He smiles and was going to thank her.

_“Honey”_

Garrus stops in his track and tenses up before looking at Mayre with a confused look.

“Do you hear that?” He whispers, and Mayre shook her head, giving him a worried look.

“No? Garrus are you okay?”

Garrus felt like he was going crazy, closing his eyes he tries to calm down.

_“Sir”_

The voice made him shiver as if it was calling out to him and it didn’t help that that word turns him on.

_“Sir”_

His plates shift, feeling, and wanting to be deep inside of this voice. After thinking that, his eyes shot open, disturbed by this thought because it was very odd.

_“Garrus!”_

He turns around to nothing again not able to stop looking for that damn voice! Mayre sighs, and touches his back.

“Garrus, I’ve been thinking…maybe we should do it?”

He turns to look at her, “Do what?” He asks.

“Become bondmates, as we should have long ago.” She looks away nervous, “I wanted to do it so badly before, but I didn’t want to die right after, leaving you broken. I know what losing a bondmate looks like; my mother was broken after my father passed away. I felt guilty and so I told you, no.”

“Mayre,” he whispers, taking her in his arms again.

“But not this time Garrus,” She looks at him in the eyes, “This time I want this! I want you and me to become bondmates. I know we are dead now, but still.” She touches his face, “I love you, Garrus.”

He stares at her and smiles, “I love you too, Mayre, always and forever.” And their heads touch in silence.

_“Garrus!”_

He ignores the voice and pulls away from the head touch, looking her in the eyes.

“May you sing for me? I miss hearing you sing.” He asks, almost shyly.

Mayre smiles and giggles. When she sang it was sweet and beautiful, something he really did miss. It had the usually Turian sound effect to it but was soft and sensual. The words in the song were of sadness and he could tell. Still, it was the most beautiful thing he’s ever heard before, even more than his mother’s singing and his mother was a beautiful singer.

Until he heard someone else singing, and he stood still, not listening to Mayre. The random singing voice drowned out Mayre’s song, overpowering it. He tried listening to Mayre as she sang but no sound came from her mouth, at least if it did he couldn’t hear it. All he could hear was the other’s song.

He felt himself turn away from Mayre, as the song was hypnotizing, and starts to walk towards it. It was soft and quiet, but he could hear the words clearly. Was it a love song?

He found himself in a bathroom and before him was a woman with brown skin. She had long brown curly hair and she was the one singing as the shower washes over her. For some reason, he couldn’t remember her, but it seems his body did, as he walks behind her and took her in his arms.

She looks up and red eyes stared at him; he could feel his heart pounding in his chest. He didn’t know what he would do at this moment. He felt nervous, but brave at the same time.

 _“Hey.”_ She whispers, and her voice made him shiver in happiness and bliss. He wishes to have this voice for himself and only himself.

He chuckles, “You sound beautiful.” He automatically said, holding her tight, never wanting anyone to have this woman, but him. She bits her lips bashfully and he wonders if her heart was beating as fast as his right now.

“ _Really?”_ She said shyly, looking in his eyes for sincerity and he holds her tighter around the waist and as the water hits his body. Sadly, wasn’t as hot, but he enjoyed it.

“Yes, you should sing more often.” He replies wanting to hear her sing again. Wishing for her to sing again. Garrus felt like he was in a cut scene, his body, and mouth doing whatever it wants. He had no agency, but being here with her cause him not to care.

She shook her head, _“My mother is the singer of the family. I just…no.”_ She looks away from him, and he starts to miss seeing her eyes. Turning her around, his mandibles twitches as he smiles at her.

“Well, could you sing for me? I wouldn’t mind being the only one.” He asks, happily hoping he would be the only one to hear this gift of hers. She reaches up and touches his face smiling.

 _“For you anything.”_ She whispers, before standing on her tippy toes and kissing his mouth plates. As they kiss he closes his eyes and couldn’t let go. He didn’t want to let go. He wanted, no needed this woman.

“Garrus?” He hears and he opens his eyes noting he was still in his apartment not in the shower with that mysterious brown skin woman.

Blinking a few times, he looks at Mayre in question, and she took his hand bringing it to her neck before closing her eyes.

“I know how much you like to ‘play’, why don’t we have some fun after we have bonded, my love?” She whispers, prompting him to squeeze her neck.

He felt conflicted as he wants Mayre, but that woman. He turns around wondering if he heard the voice again, but he didn’t. Mayre turns his head back to hers and tilts her head for him to see her open neck, ready to bond.

“Bite me Garrus, Mark me as yours, and I would do the same.” She whispers, begging him. Remembering his love for Mayre he bends down opening his mouth to bite the woman he loves.

 _“Garrus!”_ He ignores it, but his heart starts to pound in his chest.

 _“Big Guy,”_ He gets close to her neck; his heart beats faster.

 _“Honey,”_ He was about to bite into his love, and finally they could be together as one.

 _“Garrus?”_ He stops, not able to bite Mayre. He starts to think and wonder why the voice sounds so sad. His mark begins to tingle and the feather touch causes his heart to beats so quickly he felt like he was going to die from a heart attack.

 _“I..am..so..rry.”_ He pulls away from Mayre and looks at her sadly, not wanting to bite her. Mayre looks at him confused.

“What’s wrong Garrus? Don’t you want to bond with me?”

He shook his head and looks down closing his eyes clutching his jaw.

“Mayre, I…I love you so much.” He starts.

_“Garrus”_

“I love…you” He struggles, wondering if his feelings were the same.

“I love you too, Garrus. It’s why I want to become bondmates. Isn’t this what you want?” Mayre said angrily, clutching her hands in a fist.

He looks at her asking for forgiveness, “I…I’m sorry.” His heart was beating, but not for Mayre.

 _“Garrus!”_ He turns around to follow the voice, but Mayre grabs his arms.

“I thought you love me!? I thought you wanted me!?” She screams, and Garrus turns to her.

“I do love you! I just….I just…” Red eyes and a smile came into mind.

“No, you don’t! How could you say you love me, but not want to bond with me!?” She growls, pulling him away from the voice.

 _“Garrus!”_ He could feel an arm on him, pulling him from the opposite side of Mayre now.

“Garrus!” Mayre screams.

_“Garrus!”_

“Garrus!” Mayre screams louder and darker.

Garrus screams back at her and uses as much strength as he could to fling Mayre away from him. The voice’s arm let go of him, and he stood there looking at the body of Mayre laying there, looking back at him.

He walks towards her.

Suddenly, the scene changes, and he was back at the hospital where she died; and once again, she had tubes in her mouth preventing her from speaking. She was sickly and weak as she shakenly picks up her arm looking at him. He could hear the beating from her heart monitor slowly getting quiet as he walks over to her.

She tries to say something, but he couldn’t hear. She tries again and he bends down to hear her.

“I..lo..ve…yo..u,” She said.

“I love you too, Mayre. You will always have a special place in my heart, but it’s time, I let you go.” He whispers as life leaves her eyes. She then slowly disappears, and the scenery becomes what it was before darkness. A void he couldn’t escape from. He took in a deep breath and sat there remembering red eyes.

She would dance funny making him laugh at her silliness. Cry, because she was different. Shyly look away when he looks at her seductively. Angrily getting upset at the people who harm innocent people.

He starts to remember her touch, how soft and squishy her body was. He could taste that wonderful taste again from all over her body. The smell of her drove him wild. The sound of her voice, even when it was annoying, was still pleasing to him. Then, there were her eyes, so many emotions behind them that would tell a story. How unique it was to see a Human with red eyes.

 _“God, you are obsessed with my ass.”_ She giggles.

He chuckles, thinking of her body and remembers when he questioned if she tastes like Turian chocolate matching her skin tone. It didn’t, but it was still divine to him.

_“I..ho..pe…you..don..t…lea..ve…me…like..h..e..did..”_

This made him stop thinking for a moment, and he stood up, annoyed she would say that to him. Comparing him to her ex again, spirits he hated that.

Turning around he glares, if he’s dead, this was not a hell he would want to live through; constantly hearing her compare him to her ex.

He stood still, staring at the silhouette of the woman before him. It was odd seeing her like this as he knows who that was.

Walking over to her he stood there as she sat down crying into her hands, whimpering. He squats down to her level and looks at her.

“I really hate when you compare me to him.” He quietly gasps and her head shot up ‘looking’ at him in shock. He still couldn’t tell, as she was still in silhouette form, but when he reaches out and touches her cheek everything changes.

He was in a hospital bed looking at her longingly, his mandibles twitch as their eyes met; her mark tingles.

_‘Spirits, I love your eyes.’_

He thought happily seeing her again. She looks different. Her hair wasn’t as long anymore and she was much thinner. Around her eyes were black circles and her face looks boney, but she was still beautiful as ever.

He took a deep breath, “I told you before, Luna, you’re not going to scare me away that easily.” He said, and he could hear the raspiness of his voice.

***

Garrus was watching the clouds float gently by. It’s been two weeks since he woke up and it wasn’t so bad. Haven’t talked to his father and sister yet, but heard they were eager to speak to him. Luna would sneak inside his room at night and they would lay there in his bed together which was nice.

He loved it when she would sneak inside, sometimes he would try to convince her to stay with him, but she would tell him she couldn’t something about her mother not allowing it yet, strange.

Ever since his dream. Was it a dream? He’s been wanting to hear her sing, but she’s been fighting him tooth and talon not to. Sometimes he would be despite and beg her, but she still wouldn’t. One day she would sing for him, he knows it.

Laena walks into the room a smile bright on her face as she looks at him.

“Hello, Garrus, how are you doing today?” She asks.

He looks at her and nods, “Good, Dr. Shepard. May I ask how long will it take for me to finally get up?”

“Whenever your body is ready. I won’t restrict you from standing up on your own. By the way, your father called again and I told him you woken up. I am sorry for doing that without your wishes, I know you didn’t want to speak to them just yet,” she said sadly.

Garrus nods, “That’s okay. I’m ready to speak to them.” His mandible twitches in nervousness.

She nods and starts to run tests on him quietly as he lays there. Waking up five months after almost dying is jarring to say the less. He was grateful it wasn’t years, which would have been extremely awkward.

“I know Luna has been sneaking in here at night.” Her mother says quietly this pulls him out of his thoughts and tense up.

“I’m sorry, I’ve been asking her to come back.” He quickly said ashamed of himself and a bit scared of Laena.

“It’s okay at first I was against it. Scared you might….,” She pauses and looks at him ashamed, “you might be afraid of her. Right now, her mental state is very fragile and I just want to make sure she won’t regress further from her progress. You understand?” She asks looking at him.

He nods in understanding. A part of him wants to always be there for her, but after what happened…there was a fear in him. She wasn’t herself at all that day. He could still hear the loud inorganic monstrous being screaming his name.

He starts to breathe hard as the fear starts to take hold of him. He tries to fight that fear as best he can, but her black eyes sucked him in and soon his body was on fire. He was burning again just like before, his skin felt like it was melting.

He screams and clutches Dr. Shepard's arms.

“Garrus?” She looks at him worried.

He was panicking and breathing hard trying to push the thought of it away, trying to forget about her very thin body contorting in weird moves as she blinks closer and closer.

“Garrus!”

He looks at Dr. Shepard and notices he was squeezing her arm so hard it was bleeding because of his talons. He lets go in shock already stumbling out an apology.

“S..sorry.” He whispers gasping for air.

Dr. Shepard stares at him studying him quietly not even caring for the bleeding on her arm. Then she sighs and looks at him, sadly placing an arm on him.

“Garrus, I don’t want you to see Luna anymore.”

He looks up shocked, “Wait why? I…I won’t hurt her.” He said.

She shook her head, “No, you will. Almost dying could leave a person, traumatized. Which is understandable. Seeing her in that state scared me as well, trust me.” She said sadly.

He looks away hurting inside thinking of her. He could see her smile, smell her unique smell, taste her lips, hear…her…scream. He was breathing hard again trying to push the image again.

_“I’m so sorry, Luna.”_

Dr. Shepard pats his back before walking away.

“Don’t worry just give it time. Allow yourself to recover, Garrus, nothing wrong with that. I’ll make sure to talk to Luna about this.” She smiles before leaving out the door.

***

Weeks passed and Garrus and Luna tried to stay true to what Dr. Shepard said, but they couldn’t. Garrus knew she was right, that he had fear within him when thinking of Luna’s transformed form. But then, Luna would sneak inside, and he would willfully take her in his arms; she was his drug and he needed it.

Whenever she was with him, he tries to effectively push the thought of her form from purgatory out of his mind.

He only wants to see her.

They would watch romantic movies or some Fornax. Sometimes they would have sex quietly, he couldn’t move much, but his cock still worked. Sadly, she would never look at him whenever she would come for him. Believing that if she did, he would never want to see her again, but that wasn’t true.

Sometimes it was rough, sometimes it was painful for him to want to be there for her, and at the same time be constantly afraid of her. He would hold her in his arms but push her away when his mind would break from the fear. Seeing her sad look broke him inside, but he was so damn scared at times.

Garrus groans annoyed as he walks slowly trying to build his legs muscles. Dr. Chakwas and Dr. Shepard were making sure he recovers as quickly as possible, but safely as well.

“Do you want a break? If so we could stop?” Dr. Chakwas said smiling warmly at him.

He shook his head determined to be able to walk on his own without problems. He didn’t say anything as he kept pushing himself to the limit. It was when Dr. Chakwas told him to rest that he did. 

When she left, Garrus sighs thinking about Luna. A bark was heard and he looks to see Urz looking at him, panting.

“Hey boy, how are you?” He said chuckling as Urz licks his hand. Urz has been by his side for the entire time he was asleep, and he was happy about it. The bond he has with Urz has been nice and he was happy to have the varren in his life. If it wasn’t for the journey with Luna, he would have never met him.

Urz lays down and begins to sleep and Garrus watches him. He plans on telling his father and sister about the varren because one day he wants them to meet him.

“Garrus,” Luna whispers, as she sneaks inside, a seductive smile on her face; his plates shift. Urz picks his head up and she kisses it softly.

“You’re going to kiss my varren and then kiss me?” He said chuckling. She giggles and kisses his mouth plate. His heart races as he took her in his arms, she climbs onto the bed, straddling him.

“Garrus,” she moans, as his hand grabs and squeezes her sexy ass.

When he enters her, he groans in ecstasy as if he just took a shot of a stim pack. As she rode him, he couldn’t stop himself from touching her all over.

She tightens around him, and he pants whispering for her to look at him. She moans moving her body faster, but focus on his neck kissing and sucking at it. He wants to see her eyes so badly, he wanted things to be like before!

No more fear! No more lack of trust! Just his beautiful, Luna.

“Please, Luna, let me see.” He begs.

She shook her head getting ready to come, “No, Garrus, no!” She screams, coming. He groans and thrusts himself deep inside of her feeling her powers seeping inside of him.

She lays on top of him breathing heavily, refusing to look at him. He didn’t want to push anymore, so instead, held her tightly as his chin leans on top of her head.

“Is this how it’s going to be from now on?” He asks sadly. Luna didn’t say anything, instead, she turns her head up and kisses below his mandible.

“I…yes…maybe,” she whispers and they slowly drift asleep.

_“Spirits”_

***

It’s been three months since he woke up and Garrus was walking much better. Right now, he was talking to his father and sister from Palaven.

“How was Sur’Kesh, dad?” He asks. Things with his father still weren’t the greatest, but they were trying.

Castis nods, _“It was okay. Your mother told me to make sure you eat right, but judging from how you look now from two months ago I say you are.”_ He said.

Garrus laughs, “Yeah, Dr. Shepard is amazing at cooking. She even made Panki for me the other night and it was…wow.” He said remembering the taste of his favorite food.

 _“I wonder how a Human knows how to cook Turian food so well.”_ His father wonders out loud.

Garrus grew nervous, not knowing what to say when Solana giggles, gaining the attention of her father and brother.

_“Dad, I told you she has a Turian daughter. Her name is Naviana. Very sweet girl, can’t wait to talk to her again.”_

Garrus looks at his sister weirdly, “You talk to Navi?” He asks, a bit shocked.

_“Yes! We're pretty close in age so it’s not so….weird? She taught me so much about Humans and how they view the world, and I helped her understand Turians.”_

“Is that so?” Garrus asks.

 _“Yeah! She asks me to teach her how to speak our language. I hope Dr. Shepard allows her to visit Palaven or even stay on the Citadel so I can teach her in person. Com is nice, but in person is so much better.”_ She said excitedly.

His father starts to ask more questions about the Shepards, but Garrus tune them both out remembering Luna wants to learn their language as well.

_“You need to teach me how to speak Turian!”_

_“Garrus, Son!”_ His father calls out.

Garrus blinks out of his thoughts and stares at the screen seeing his father look at him concernedly.

“Sorry dad, what did you say?”

_“I said I have to go, need to speak with someone about changing a few things. I’ll talk to you later.”_

“Yeah of course. Bye, dad.”

_Solana smiles at him, “I need to go as well Garrus! Is it choi? Choy? Ugh, whatever. Bye Garrus.”_

It was silent after they came off the com and Garrus was now looking out the window with a sad expression.

_“I miss Luna,”_

There was a knock on his door and he looks over to it.

“Come in!” He calls out and Joker walks inside with a smile on his face.

“Hey man, how’s it going?” He asks limping over to him.

Garrus leans back trying to hide his disappointment, “Good. You?”

Joker chuckles, “Disappointed I’m not Luna, huh?” He asks laughing at Garrus’ expression.

“What? No! I’m glad to see you, Joker, honestly.” Garrus said chuckling nervously.

Joker rolls his eyes, “Yeah sure! Anyway just came by to see how things are. I know what happened must be kind of scary.” Joker said shrugging.

Garrus looks away from him sadden by his words. He didn’t want to have this fear in him, but sometimes he could still hear her voice and feel the burning.

“I…yeah everything is fine.” He was quiet after and so was Joker.

Odd

He was used to Joker being loud, obnoxious, and kind of an asshole. When a comedy vid came on in the room, Garrus turns he head towards it.

Stand-up comedy

Garrus turns to Joker, who was clicking away trying to find a good one. Garrus leans back relaxing in his presence. Sure it wasn’t Luna, but Joker isn’t bad company. Over time they did form a friendship.

A Human male come on and started to play on stereotypical jokes, and surprisingly, it was pretty funny. They both laugh loudly watching the comedian on the screen. Sadly it only lasts an hour, but Joker seems to know really good ones as he puts on another show.

“She’s scared you know.” Joker finally brings up and Garrus looks at him. Quietly, he looks away sighing at the thought of a sad Luna.

“I know.” He said sadly.

“I hope you’re not going to push her away?” Joker said looking at him with an angry expression.

“I don’t plan to, nor do I want to,” he looks at the screen, “Her mother told me not to speak to her for a while, but I can’t keep away from her.” He chuckles while rubbing his fringe.

Joker stares at him, “Okay, but you’re not going to push her away, right?” Joker asks and Garrus looks guilty.

He hesitates, “No, I don’t plan on pushing her away….but, I want to have that sense of trust again. I don’t want to be like this I-”

Joker cuts him off, “Look, Garrus, she’s been pushed away in the past before, and honestly, I don’t want to see it again,” He said, “I respect that you need to heal after going through what you went through, but if you’re going to push her away one day, because of your fear of her, I want you to do it right now,” He said sternly.

Garrus sighs before looking Joker in the eyes, “I don’t plan on leaving her!” he almost shouts, “Yes, I…I’m afraid of Shepard. After what happened, sometimes I get flashes in my mind and my body seems to lock up on me. I can’t speak, can’t run. All I could do is feel the burning pain in my body. Hear her scream my name from her lips.” He shivers.

Garrus covers his face with his hands trying to push the image away. He could see her beautiful face and body, but then it would warp into that…banshee.

Joker nods, “its okay, man. I didn’t come in here to hate you or scold you. Looney can be scary sometimes and it’s okay to have that fear. What’s not okay, is to continue to fuck my best friend getting her to tear down her walls for you, just for you to fucking do everything in your power to get away from her when that fear truly hits you. It’s Kaidan all over again, man.” Joker said glaring at him.

“I’m not running away! I’m not using, Luna! I wouldn’t fuck her and ‘do everything in my power to get away from her!’” He shouts, “Spirits, would people stop comparing me with her ex! It’s insulting!”

Joker frowns, “Then don’t act like him then! Don’t come into her life causing her to love you, then when shit happens, shit that you know would or could happen, you run away from her!” He shouts, “The least you could do is stay away from her. Once you recover, leave, I know this mission is important, so, tell the Council to send a different Spectre is all I’m saying.” Joker said finally calming down and looking to the ground sadly.

Garrus swallows, “No, I…don’t want to leave. She’s not the only one with feelings.” He looks at Joker, “As I said, I don’t plan on leaving her anytime soon, just need to get through this fear.” He said stubbornly.

Joker touches his shoulder, “Than, I’m holding you to your word, Garrus. I watched her break down before about Kaidan. Sure, she wasn’t blowing shit up, but she was,” He sighs and took his hat off rubbing his hand through his hair, “She was hurting and I hate seeing her hurt; she’s like a sister to me. I hope you understand why I’m so protective of her.” He whispers.

Garrus nods, “I understand. Can I ask how did you two meet?” He asks.

“We met during the early Alliance days, so yes I met Kaidan,” He said bitterly, “I don’t mean to be an asshole about Kaidan; just pissed after he hurt her. We were all pretty good friends, although I liked Looney more. I couldn’t do any of the physical stuff they could, but I was a damn good pilot.” He said proudly.

“How did that work out? I’m sure being a pilot with your disability isn’t normal.” Garrus asks.

Joker nods, “Yeah, during my time there I was training to be a pilot, but they told me I had to wear a harness, because of my disabilities, and I said, fine.” He said annoyed, “But, I couldn’t keep wearing it. Back then it wasn’t that great, still a work in progress, and I knew they were using me as some kind of ‘hey, we're all about equal opportunity’ pandering bs.” He grumbles.

“I’m just going to guess, you didn’t follow their rules?” Garrus asks.

Joker sighs, “No I didn’t, and they let me go... I was pissed about it, but I understood why. Took my cripple ass home sulking, until one day Luna calls me, telling me about her new project, the Normandy.” He said excitedly.

“The plans she stole from the Alliance,” Garrus chuckles.

Joker grins, “Oh, yeah! Big ‘fuck you’ to them! I had to join her crazy ass! When I sat in that seat,” He sniffs, “I almost cried, leather seats Garrus, leather. Luna knew me so damn well! I would always complain about the seats during flight school!” He laughs.

“And that’s why she’s like a sister to you?” Garrus jokes, chuckling.

Joker smiles, “She believed in me when no one else did. I was never required to wear a damn harness, and I didn’t feel like I was some damn checkbox to pander to the public.” He chuckles, “I’ve been working with her for…six years now and known her for ten. So, I stand by my statement, she’s like a sister to me.” He said smiling.

Garrus mandibles twitch in happiness, “Well, you have nothing to worry about when it comes to your ‘sister’ and me.” He chuckles.

Joker laughs, “Good, now then let us keep watching these standup comedies, heard the Elcor one is the best.” He grins

Garrus chuckles, “What?” he asks trying to contain his laugher.

“Oh yes, and I am excited!”

***

It was nighttime as Garrus did his exercising. As he did his pushups he begins to think of Luna.

“Forty-seven,” he grunts.

_“I wonder what she is doing now.”_

“Forty-eight”

_“She must be sitting in her bed reading romance novels”_

“Forty-nine”

_“I wonder if she’s thinking of me. Like I am thinking of her.”_

“Fifty,” He grunts before standing up and making up his mind about what he was going to do.

Walking out the door he looks up and down the hallway and notices the lights on in some rooms, he then made his way to Luna’s room.

Passing by one of the rooms he saw Kasumi sitting on the bed with her legs crossed grinning as she records Jacob doing pushups. She said something and he grins at her saying something back. It wasn’t long before she sat on his back and he resumes his pushups. Garrus looks away not trying to invade their privacy, but he did picture doing that with Luna.

Passing by another room and he saw Jack sitting there on the bed. She looks to be in deep thought until she looks up at him.

He remembers her having no hair, now? Her hair has grown to shoulder length, not as long as Luna’s, but it’s there. He notices the sides of her hair were shaved allowing everyone to see the tattoo on her head. As for her body tattoos, well, they gave him a headache.

When she gave him the middle finger he turns away and continues to walk.

A few empty rooms more and he finally made it to Luna’s room. Self-doubt took over him.

_“I know you can do it. Don’t allow fear to take control. You are in control.”_

Garrus, silently thank his father for those words and took a deep breath. Turning towards the window of her room he notices it was covered. He shook his head not letting nerves get to him anymore.

Opening the door, he walks inside to see her sitting on a chair looking outside. Her lights were off so only the moon was used as light and it was hitting her at a perfect angle. It wasn’t until her eyes looked at him, he took in his breath.

 _“I really miss you.”_ He thought.

As if she could read his mind, she bit her lips. Her body was becoming fuller again and her hair was now a reach a quarter of her back. Her cheeks weren’t so sunken in and the black around her eyes wasn’t so black.

“Garrus?” She asks taking him out of his thoughts.

He smiles, “Hey.” Was all he said and he felt like crap saying just that. He wanted to say more, but nothing came out.

She turns back to the window, “Eden prime is pretty at night. I was just people watching, maybe sneak out and walk myself.” She smiles softly and his stomach did knots.

He chuckles, “Maybe I could join you? Having a walk sounds nice.” He said hoping she wouldn’t say no.

Luna looks outside then back him, “Yeah I would like that,” she said standing up and slowly walking towards him if a bit hesitant and he notices.

They were walking, taking in the sight of Eden Prime. It wasn’t very extravagant, after all, it was just an ordinary colony, but Eden Prime has a certain charm to it. Luna was right it was beautiful at night.

They passed by a few aliens, and Garrus was a little surprised to see them. A few shops were selling all sorts of things. When they passed by a gun shop he kind of just window browsed.

Luna giggles and he looks away from it to see what she was giggling at. When he saw she was looking at him, he looks around in confusion.

“You’re like a kid at a candy store when you view a gun mod shop.” She giggles covering her mouth.

He chuckles and shrugs, “I haven’t held a gun in a very long time really starting to miss it.” He said.

She smiles and nods looking away from him, continuing to walk. Noticing she was done talking he caught up to her. They walk in silence again, which wasn’t so bad, but Garrus wanted more than just to walk in silence.

Building up his confidence he took her hand in his. At first, she tenses and he notices instantly. As he begins to pull away she tightens her hold on him. Garrus took in a breath having her hand in his felt wonderful to him as if he was walking on clouds.

Their hands entwined

Luna grins as she brings them to a hot spring place and she drags him inside as he begins to question where they are

“Alright, what is this place?” He asks

She pokes his chest, “A hot spring hotel! Which is amazing. Everyone has tried it, besides you, even Jack tried it and she loves it.” She tiptoes to whisper to him, “I’ve been wanting to have you here privately with me ever since you woke up.” Her voice pop after saying up and Garrus caught the hint.

Wrapping his arm around her, he chuckles, “Well then let’s go. I worked out before seeing you so doing this could really loosen me up.” He huskily said in her ears.

She looks at him seductively and licks her lips. He notices and his mandibles twitch in excitement.

They paid for a private room and when they made their way inside Garrus was impressed by the look.

The Hot Springs was outside where the stars can be seen. While indoors is a normal hotel room, with a large bed of course. Warm air coming from the water made Garrus excited to just be in it. Hearing Hot Spring should be that, hot.

They took their clothes off and used some towels to cover their assets. Once inside Garrus groans in pleasure at the hot water hitting his hide. He was so relaxed he didn’t hear Luna’s questions until he felt her touch him.

He looks at her, “Huh? Sorry, the water took me to heaven.”

Luna giggled, “I was asking if you are enjoying the water. Looks like I got my answer.” She smiles and begins to rub her body with the water.

Garrus’ eyes made their way to her body enjoying the view even if it was covered mostly by water. He was so distracted he didn’t notice Luna turning toward him and taking her towel off until he saw her harden nipples.

Blinking rapidly, he looks at her wide-eyed as she smiles at him seductively.

“Just noticed you are enjoying the view and thought to give you more to look at.” She tilts her head giving him a view of his mark.

He reaches forward and touches the mark feeling a spark. She must have felt it as well since her breathing hitches.

He looks into her eyes, “I need to tell you something,” He whispers.

“Hmm?”

“I’m glad to be here with you, Luna. I don’t want you to think I want to run away from you after what happened.” He took a deep breath and looks down, “But that doesn’t mean I don’t fear you. Doesn’t mean I don’t think that you might get to that point again.” He looks up.

“I see…” She covers her body looking away from him in disappointment. He reaches out and touches her cheek making her look at him.

“I still want to be here with you, Luna. I still want to protect you. Just give me some time to work through this. Please?” He asks, no, begs her.

She took in a breath and nods a small, yet sad smile appears on her lips. Before she could say anything he kisses her lips. It was just a kiss on her lips where he didn’t open his mouth plates using his tongue.

Garrus couldn’t help himself and his desires took over. Grabbing her waist he brings her into his laps as his mouth opens up slightly allowing his tongue to lick the bottom of her lips asking her for permission to enter.

She moans softly and opens her mouth for him. Their kiss was slow and passionate before becoming faster as if starving for each other.

Getting out the Hot Spring she leads him to the bedroom. Turning around, she gasps as he pushes her on the bed and opens her legs.

He really missed her

Both his hands were keeping her thighs apart as he got on his knees; he could feel her instinctively trying to close her legs out of shyness. As his face got closer to her sex, his eyes met hers, and they intensely stare at one another. Garrus then uses his tongue to slowly drag up the length of her slit causing her to shake and letting out a small gasp.

His arms wrap around her thighs, pulling it closer and wider as he continues to lick savoring her taste. He was thirsty and he was enjoying the taste.

Her breath becomes more labored as she arches her back and moaning his name begging for him to play with her swollen clit. He didn’t listen to her, as he was in control, not she.

His tongue went at a steady pace, as if slowly, just to tease her and hear her beg for him.

“Garrus…please.” She whimpers and he feels her hand lightly rubbing his fringe as her body squirm. Hearing her labored breath and moans caused him to groan as he licks at her delicious sex. He could feel himself coming out of his body and hardening just by hearing her.

Spirits, he missed her

“Sir,” She begs again, this time with the title she knows he loves to be called. He chuckles and decides to reward her for calling him that by sticking his tongue deep inside causing her almost to scream for him.

Using his thumb he starts to press onto her clit making her breathe harder and shake. He looks up at her hoping to see her red eyes on him and he did. Their eyes were intense as they stared at each other. Looking away from her eyes he starts to watch as her stomach would rise and fall, shake and tremble as he presses harder on clit with his thumb.

She covers her eyes with her arms as her body was shaking and he knew she was close.

“Don’t stop please, please! Please don’t stop!” She couldn’t stop herself from begging and as her toes curl getting closer to her release.

Garrus smirks as he stops rubbing her clit and instead begins to lick at it before pressing down with his tongue. Her body shot up and she grabs his head with one hand while squeezing her breast with the other.

Garrus wanted to ‘toy’ with her, but couldn’t help himself from wanting to have her come for him. He pulls away and she gasps.

“No!” She yells shaking; she didn’t want to wait and her hand quickly went for to get her off, but Garrus grabs her hands and look into her eyes.

“Nope,” he whispers, “Not until I tell you.” Before she could whine and say something he kisses her deeply. Their tongue swirling around each other sloppily. As they kiss Garrus pushes Luna down and roughly shoves himself inside of her not able to pace himself as his cock was begging to be deep inside of her.

Garrus was fast and rough. Judging by how loud she was and how tight she was squeezing his cock, she was loving it.

He was groaning as he fucks her trying to go as deep as possible. When she starts to scream louder each time he hits a certain spot; he made sure to keep hitting it.

“Fuck…Garrus right….right there!” She moans loudly and he grips her waist using his talons to cause some pain.

With a grin, he pulls out, much to her protest, and turns her on her left side. Grabbing her right leg he holds it up as he pushes deep inside of her again trying to find that special spot of hers.

Turning her upper body to look at him, she watches his face full of pleasure and felt pleased she was the reason for him looking like this. When he hit her special spot again her toes curls, and she squeezes tightly around him as he roughly takes her.

“Spirits, yes…” he moans, holding her right leg tightly feeling himself getting closer to his release. He saw her hand reach down to her clit and rub rapidly as she meets him with each thrust.

As he continues to pound into her tightness he leans forward and her legs wrap around his waist tightly, while her hand reaches for his fringe. His hands dug into the bed as he starts to go faster needing a bit of stability.

That when he felt it

Garrus starts to feel her powers deep within him and he gasps in pleasure. As if some evil spirit wish to ruin this movement, fear begins to creep in him. Trying to ignore the fear inside of him he continues to pound into her as her powers were giving him a pleasurable hot feeling, not the burning sens-

_“No! Focus Garrus!”_

He took in a deep breath as his eyes were closed listening to her moans and labor breath. Even he had labor breath as he could feel the exhausting of working his body this hard.

With his eyes closed still trying to concentrate on the pleasure, “Come for Luna,” He growls commanding her and she listens; first her body tenses up almost going still and she draws in her breath while rubbing his fringe before allowing herself to scream his name in ecstasy.

Her powers engulfed him and he pumps faster trying to get to his release. He could feel his heart about to jump out of his chest with how fast it was beating. He starts to pants quickly not able to take in a full breath.

_“Spirits so…close!”_

He finally comes shoving himself deep inside of her, and she yips.

Finally, he stops breathing hard and feeling the night’s chilly air on his back. He pulls himself up and looks down to see Luna smiling at him her eyes fully black.

And he freezes.

He couldn’t move as he looks at her, couldn’t breathe. The thought of pain suddenly presented itself in his mind and Luna begins to warp into what she was before. Her body starts to become thin and sickly. He could hear her scream his name.

“Garrus?” She asks, not liking the look of fear on his face while staring at her.

Luna suddenly changes back to her normal self, but he couldn’t move, her black eyes were still on him.

He was afraid.

He could see the pain in her eyes at being looked at by him like this. This pains him as he didn’t want it to be like this, he wanted to hold her, kiss her, and tell her it is going to be okay. But his body won’t fucking move!

He was petrified at the sight of her black eyes. An intense fear for what she became, what she had done to him, deep inside his core; he was traumatized. Just like what Dr. Shepard said to him, warned him.

_“Luna please don’t be sad! I’m sorry! I can’t move. I…I’m scared. Don’t leave. Please Luna don’t leave.”_

Tears forms into her eyes, not able to speak as she pushes him away. Her eyes still as black as the abyss looking at him, begging him to stop looking at her like she was a monster.

He was breathing hard and his body was still locked, frozen in this flight or fight state. He couldn’t stop it, it was just pure instinct at this point.

She stands up and cries, “I knew it. I knew this would happen if I looked at you with my eyes like this. I'm so...stupid. I shouldn’t have let my guard down, I became to…comfortable…again.” she sobs, and as she puts on her clothes.

She turns to him again hoping he would say something, do anything! But he still couldn’t move or talk just stare at her in fear.

She shook her head, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry for being a monster, Garrus.” She whimpers, and took in a deep breath closing her eyes; he could see her building up walls.

When she opens her eyes they were back to normal and she looks at him coldly, “You don’t have to worry about my monstrous self anymore. From now on we will never get this close again.” She said detached and left the room, tears still running down her face.

With her gone, he regains functionality and races out the door screaming for her. She turns around and stares at him.

“What?” She said coldly.

“Please, I’m sorry…I can’t help it.” He said desperately.

She shook her head, “No, Garrus. This!” She points at herself and him, “Is over! I won’t let romance blindside me again,” She said as her eyes start to become black, “You won’t get over this fear of me! You will always look at me like some fucking monster!” She screams her eyes now fully black.

Garrus swallows as he starts to remember Purgatory again, the burning in his body starts to erupt. Pushing down his fear he opens his mouth to speak, but she cuts him off.

“What? Are you going to say, ‘I won’t leave you? I promise to always love you. I understand you.’” She mocks, “You fear me and eventually you’ll leave me because of that fear. Just like Kaidan.” She said slowly.

Garrus looks down anger and depression filled him inside. How dear she mocks his feelings for her!? How dear she acts as if she’s the only one hurting here?! How dare she fucking compare him to Kaidan!? Again!

He glares at her, “Always about Kaidan. Everything about Kaidan! Stop fucking comparing me to Kaidan!” He shouts punching the wall.

She glares at him, “How can I not when you act just like him!?” She shouts.

His eyes became cold, “I guess that’s your type, huh?” He chuckles darkly shaking his head, “Men, who fear you?” he said coldly

She gasps her eyes widen, “Fuck you,” She said in pure shock.

He glares at her, “I can only make so many mistakes in one day,” he said unfeelingly.

They stood there staring at each other, and Luna’s angry stare dissolved into unadulterated hurt at his words. Turning around she walks away sobbing, feeling the life kicked out of her.

Garrus continues to glare as she walks away, before finally realizing what he just said and regretting everything that just happened.

Walking back inside the room he drops onto the bed sitting there, sinking into his depression.

Watching her leave was hard, dealing with her comparing him to Kaidan, again, was rough; but seeing that look on her face, after what he said, hurts.

_“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,”_

He feels desperate and depressed wanting her to come back, wanting everything to just go back to what it was, before Purgatory.

He suddenly felt the demon of depression taking hold of his heart.

_“Useless,”_

_“Worthless”_

_“You deserve to be alone”_

_“Kill yourself”_

He whimpers, as his body lays on the bed. Everything feels so…heavy as if his body is being weighed down by someone, or something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long update, 5 days damn!  
> The ending for this almost made me cry, idk about you, but that was sad.  
> Either way! I hope you guys enjoy this one, will have another update soonish, after my bday tomorrow for sure!


	22. Cold As Ice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Noveria isn't the only one cold.

“Fifteen.”

_“What? Are you going to say, ‘I won’t leave you? I promise to always love you. I understand you.’”_

“Sixteen.”

_“Always about Kaidan. Everything about Kaidan! Stop fucking comparing me to Kaidan!”_

“Seventeen.”

_“How can I not when you act just like him!?”_

“Eighteen.”

_“I guess that’s your type, huh? Men, who fear you?”_

“Nineteen.”

_“Fuck you,”_

“Twenty.”

_“I can only make so many mistakes in one day”_

Luna stops and breathes heavily trying to calm her quick beating heart, as she finishes her sit-ups. The thought of Garrus races through her mind and she closes her eyes tight trying to push the argument, away.

Sitting there on the floor, she could feel the burn of her abs after her intense workout. It was great that she was able to get back into her routine of working out after so long of being weak.

Getting up, she starts her burpees getting into a steady rhythm. By her fifth burpees the door opens up and her mother walks inside.

“I see you are hard at work?” Laena smiles.

Luna continues to jump, “Yeah, just did my five reps of twenty sits ups. Now doing my burps.” She said falling to the floor and doing a push up before jumping back up. Laena nods and took a sit going over her charts.

“We’ve been here for almost a year now. Judging from what we found, Maelon, wouldn’t be able to finish the cure since making a cure would take a while.” Laena states.

Jumping up, Luna looks at her mother, “Really?” She asks a bit shock as she falls back to the ground.

“Yes, Mordin and I have been talking back and forth ever since you and Garrus were incapacitated. The work at STG has been going pretty well, but sadly, two of the females died.” Laena said feeling remorse.

Luna falls to the ground doing a push-up, “What?” She asks breathlessly while trying to not be affected by hearing Garrus’ name.

“Yes, only the female Shaman, Uno, and Jun’ka are the survivors. Tragic, I know, but this is what happens when people are desperate for hope.” Laena said, leaning back in her chair.

After her twentieth burpee, Luna decides to stop, feeling exhausted. She closes her eyes, holds her head with her hands and stands still after feeling dizzy from her work out.

Working out this much, and this hard, isn’t something she should be doing at this moment, but she needs this to help distract her from what happened with Garrus.

Groaning a little in pain, she sits down on her hospital bed trying to not throw up, her symptoms getting worse.

“I told you not to overexert yourself, Luna.” Laena scolds, crossing her arms.

Luna leans forward with her hand was on her knees trying not to fall over. Her mother was right, she working too damn hard, but she can’t help it when all she keeps remembering is the argument and the fear in his eyes.

“I’ll be fine, don’t worry about me.” She grumbles.

“What happened with Garrus?” Laena finally asks, worried for her daughter.

Luna squeezes her eyes shut, replaying the argument in her mind. Tears begin to fall from her eyes and she held herself silently sobbing.

Luna opens her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. She felt…cold, very cold. She could see the fear of Garrus’ eyes and how similar it looks to Kaidan’s eyes. She hates what happened, but mainly, she hates…herself. She doesn’t deserve to be loved by anyone, she’s a monster and monsters can’t be loved.

She looks up at her mother and their eyes met. Laena starts to sing her lullaby and took Luna in her arms, holding her tight.

“It hurts, mom. It hurts so much,” She whimpers, feeling physical pain in her chest.

***

“It feels good to be back,” she whispers, as she steps onto the Normandy and makes her way into the cockpit where Joker was sitting, tapping away at the screens.

He turns to look at her, “Hey, Commander.” He smiles.

“Commander? No Lulu or Looney,” she jokes, but inside she was worried feeling as if everyone is scared of her, including the people she’s known for years.

“Well, Lulu is what your sister loves to call you. Looney though, as much as I love calling you that. I just don’t want to lose that spark.” He said, grinning at her. 

She rolls her eyes and sits beside him as more people enter the ship. They talked for a bit before EDI told them everyone was accounted for and they begin making their way to Noveria. 

“How long until we get there, Joker?” She asks as they are now making their way to the Mass Relay. 

“A few hours at best.” 

It was quiet and Luna was enjoying it. She starts to remember times when she and joker would just sit here talk for hours on end. A smile appears on her face wondering what they could talk about.

“I hope you’re not using me as an excuse not to go to your cabin.” He jokes.

She opens her eyes wide and looks at him, “What?” She asks her heart starts beating quickly.

“Look, I know you and Garrus were a thing. Sure you guys didn’t label it because ‘I’m too cool for school’, but it was clear as day you guys were an ‘item’.” He air quotes. 

Luna’s lips tremble as she looks away from Joker. Taking a deep breath, she looks back at him.

“Garrus and I were not an ‘item’, at least, not in that regard; we were friends with benefits.” She said sadly.

Joker stares at her, “Everything okay, Looney?” He asks using his nickname for her, hoping to cheer her up.

She looks up at the stars not saying a word to him, he watches as her eyes filled with sorrow.

“Garrus told me you guys were…over. I was upset at first, but he said you were the one that ended it. Was he lying?” He asks, slowly getting angry for his friend.

Luna turns her head to him, “He’s scared of me, Joker. So, I broke it off.” She took a deep breath. “We got into an argument, said some things.” She whispers.

“What things?” He asks.

She sighs, “Well, I started comparing him to Kaidan, again,” She starts.

Joker sighs and sits back in his chair, “Come on, Luna, Kaidan? Again? You need to let Kaidan go! He’s not worth it! It’s been years, forget about him and move on!” He said, impatiently.

She plays with her hair, “I can’t, okay! Kaidan was the best thing that ever happened to me!” She shouts.

“Kaidan left, and ignored you! Didn’t even want to talk to you about what happened to help both of you get over it, to help you get over it, Luna.” He said, trying to get through to her.

She shook her head, “It was for a good reason, Joker. If I knew how to control myself, my emotions." She pauses and sighs, "I could have killed him that day,” she whispers.

“Doesn’t give him the right to just…delete you from his life, Luna. Kaidan knew about your problem, so he should have...," He sighs, "He should have sympathized, instead, he completely severed the connection between the two of you.” Joker said sadly.

Luna didn’t say anything for a while, just thinking about Kaidan. His eyes were full of fear, his body trembling.

“I’m a monster,” she whispers looking into dark space.

“No, you’re not.” He said sternly.

“Yes, I am. Monsters are uncontrollable. I am uncontrollable.” She said, clutching her hands.

Joker crossing his arms, “I’ve seen you in control of this power before, and you’re amazing, Luna. The things you do, I wish I could do.” He grins, “Like imagine me, just slapping bitches with my biotic powers. Cha cha cha, Cha cha cha,” He laughs as he swiftly moves his arms back and forth.

Luna rolls her eyes and giggles at his silliness. When he stops, she saw him nursing his arm a bit, might have broken something.

He looks at her, “I know having Kaidan, leave you, broke you inside; but you can’t keep…thinking everyone is Kaidan, you know? Garrus is a good one, I trust him.” He said.

She looks down, “The look in Garrus’ eyes, Joker, you didn’t see it.” She laughs bitterly, “When I left him, I felt like heartbroken, but in control, you know? Like, I was the one to end things, not him.” She whispers.

Joker looks at her, he was about to say something, but she continues.

“As I was walking away, he…ran after me. Begging for me back.” She smiles, “God, I was so…happy. He ran after me! He wants me! Even with his fear, he still wanted to give this a try. It felt like a romance movie,” She hugs herself happily.

Joker looks at her, “Is this the part where you compared him to, Kaidan?” He asks with a frown.

She sighs, “Yes, I got…upset thinking about Kaidan.” She whispers.

Joker gave her an ‘are you serious?’ face, annoyed for Garrus, now. Everything just has to be about Kaidan.

“I got mad at Kaidan for not doing what Garrus was doing. I asked myself ‘how come Kaidan couldn’t do this!?’ Then I turned around and all I saw was Kaidan, and then Garrus, and once again Kaidan.” She took in breath tears forming in her eyes.

His annoyed face changes slowly into a sad look as he watches her cry, he hates watching her cry.

She sniffs, “Garrus told me, ‘men who fear me is my type.’ When he said that, I was in this state of shock...angry he said that. So, I said to him, ‘Fuck You.’” She looks back into space, “And, that’s when he told me I was a mistake.” She whispers.

***

When they landed on Noveria, it was freezing.

“Fuck, I like cold, but this is ridiculous. My ass feels like it could freeze off at any point, and my heating regulators are at max!” Luna complains.

“I could always warm you up if you’d like, Shepard.” Garrus jokes hoping she would reciprocate. 

Luna continues to walk forward ignoring him. This made him look down in guilt feeling the world weighing on him again. 

“That’s pretty cold of you to do that, Shep,” Kasumi said, frowning at her friend’s response to the Turian. 

Luna shrugs, “We have a job to do, no time for jokes.” She said, coldly as they finally made it to the entrance of the place. 

Three personalize with weapons walk over to them looking annoyed by their presence. 

“State your business here.” She said, glaring at them. Luna was about to say something when Garrus steps forward.

“My name is Garrus Vakarian, and I am a Spectre here on busy for the Council.” He said sternly. The woman looks him up and down and called to her superiors about what is going on. Crossing her arms, Luna waits, wanting this to be over with.

“Of course sir,” she looks at Garrus, “You are free to go.” 

When they were about to walk past her, she stops Luna, Kasumi, and Jack. 

Luna scowls at her, “Seriously?” She asks, annoyed. 

“You are not authorized to carry your weapons passed this point.”

“Bullshit!” Jack spats, clutching her hand into a fist.

“Either you leave this place or we would have to force you to leave.”

Garrus sighs, “They are with me. Whatever they do will reflect on me.” He said, wanting to get out the cold.

She shook her head, “We are not allowed to-”

“Would you relax, Matsuo, they are allowed inside with their weapons.” They all turn to see the new speaker and Luna grins.

“If it isn’t Gianna Parasini,” She laughs, shaking her head, “I thought you were on Illium.” Crossing her arms. 

Gianna smiles, “I was, but just like you, I had to move on and made myself here on Novaria.” With a nod, she told them to follow. Jack gave Matsuo a smirk and the middle finger while Kasumi smiles while giving her a small bow.

As they made their way across the station, Luna was talking happily to Gianna about their last encounter. Garrus, on the other hand, was trying to get in touch with his contact. 

It wasn’t until Gianna pauses and looks at Luna with a smile on her face that Luna knew, she wants something.

“Alright, make it quick and how much are you paying me,” Luna smirks.

Gianna sighs, “Always credits with you.” She rolls her eyes, “I have a mission for you and I'll make sure to pay you full 50,000 credits for it.” She crosses her arms. 

Luna looks surprised, “50,000? Holy shit, that important? Alright, what do you need me to do?” Luna asks, already game.

“Internal Affairs isn’t very happy with my ‘boss’, Anolesis, at the moment. I’ve been investigating him for a while now, but I don’t have hard evidence. I need your help on getting this information so I could take his ass down.” 

Luna chuckles, “Information huh? Sounds like something I am into.” She gave a smile.

“Once you get the information for me I need you to convince Qui’in to testify. With everything stacked against him, I could take him down and some of my cut would go to you.” Gianna said as they walk.

“Wait? I need to convince someone now. I’m going to need more credits. 75,000” Luna smirks.

Gianna stops and looks at her shocked, “What? Are you shitting me!? Is there a friend discount anywhere there?” She asks, desperately. 

Luna laughs, “There is! I would have charged 100,000 for this job. Look, I have bills to pay, Gianna, and I was incapacitated for months not able to earn credits. My cost right now is a bit inflated.” She said shrugging.

“A bit?!” Gianna groans, “Fine, 75,000 credits.” Frowning at Luna. 

Garrus looks at Gianna, “Qui’in? As in Lorik Qui’in?” He asks.

Gianna looks over at him and nods, “Yes, do you know him?” She asks narrowing her eyes in suspicion.

“Yes actually, I have to speak with him about some things. He’s my contact here that would give me access with his garage key.” 

Gianna gasps, “Is that so, then can you convince him at a much lower rate than, Shepard?” She asks, hoping for a better deal.

Luna glares, “Really, just going to fuck off, huh?” She asks, rolling her eyes.

“Well if you’re going to cost that much, I need to find alternatives!” Gianna grumbles.

Garrus puts his hands up, “Sorry, I work with Shepard so if you want to get anything, you’re going to need to pay full price. I was also incapacitated and lost out on money. We’re both hurting for some.”

“Shit, if that’s true shouldn’t it be 150,000 for both? I mean, it does cost 75,000 for only Shepard, right? Having Garrus work for you as well should just double the price.” Jack grins, maliciously. 

Gianna looks in horror, “No! Absolutely not! I don’t have those kinds of credits!” She gasps.

Luna shrugs, “Let’s go then. See you around Gina! Hope things work out.” She calls out as they begin to walk away. 

“Wait!” Luna grins turning back to Gianna, “Fine, 150,000 it is. Just, get me my damn Turian and evidence.”

“Pleasure doing business with you again, Gina,” She smiles and turns away. 

“Nice work Jack, that was a good one,” Kasumi said chuckling. 

“Yeah well, sounds like were broke and I hate corporate shits who have all this money while shitting on the people with less.”

Luna shook her head, “Gianna isn’t like that; she’s actually from a poor background. She’s pretty loyal and knows her shit. Didn’t think to get that much from her, but hey, it’s not really coming out of her paycheck. I’ll just treat her one day when I am free, as thanks.” She smiles.

“That’s nice of you, Shepard,” Garrus said wanting her to talk to him.

She didn’t say anything and kept walking. Garrus sighs, but kept his head up not allowing people to see his pain. 

Luna starts to play with her curly hair. It wasn’t as long as before, but its growing. Plus, right now, being near Garrus was stressing her out and making her feel like crap.

Her face shows no emotions, but she just wanted to be held by him. She wanted him to slap her ass and tell her how much he loves it. There was a desire in her that wants him to pin her against the wall and tell her, he’s going to claim her as his own.

Most of all, she just wanted him to tell her it’s going to be alright. That what she is feeling is okay and that he would be there for her no matter what.

But then his face would appear, and their harsh words would play in her mind. She couldn’t do it, she couldn’t push herself to talk to Garrus, plus, he couldn’t be near her without it causing him trauma. 

Her lips tremble.

“If it isn’t, Garrus Vakarian. Good to see you made it here safely. I’m sure Castis would be please to know this.” A Turian spoke who Luna assumes is, Lorik Qui’in.

“It’s good to see you, Qui’in. Before we talk about why I am here, I was hoping you could help us. We need you to testify against Administrator Anolesis for corruption.” Garrus starts, wanting to get Gianna’s request done.

Lorik nods, “If you want me to testify, I am going to need you to get some information for me.” He said taking a small sip of his drink.

“And here I thought the information was going to be with you,” Luna groans, rolling her eyes.

He turns to Luna and begins checking her out, his mandibles twitch, “No, the information is hidden away in my office. Sadly, it’s being guarded by a few people who are under Anolesis control.” He purrs when saying control towards Luna, and she shivers feeling naked under his gaze.

Kasumi felt uneasy while wanting to shoot this Turian in the face. Garrus steps in front of Luna as if it was nothing.

“How many? Is it a large group or small?” Garrus asks, trying to not showcase his anger. Noticing Garrus was a barrier between him and the red-eye beauty, Lorik leans back and crosses his leg as if it was nothing.

“From what I saw, it was about three or four, so I’m sure you would have no problem dealing with them.” He said with a bored tone.

“Where do we need to go?” Garrus asks.

“Head to the elevator near the garage. Use this to head upstairs.” Lorik passes Garrus an access card.

Garrus nods and instinctively his arm went around Luna’s waist, pulling her with him. Luna bit her lips at the feeling of his arms around her again.

Lorik watches from afar a bit disappointed and curious as to what Castis have to say about this.

“Oh, can you keep the bloodstains off the carpets, having to pay cleaners more then they are worth is not apart of the plan here.”

It didn’t take long to get to the elevator, and as they wait for it Garrus' arm is still around Luna’s waist. 

With a cough, she pulls away from him and crosses her arms, waiting. Garrus awkwardly scratch the back of his head in embarrassment. There were no words that were exchange as the tension build. 

“Shepard,” Garrus starts but the elevator dings and Luna walks inside.

“Stay on task, Vakarian.” She said coldly, as the other two enters behind her. Garrus sighs and enters the elevator as well.

As they came off the elevator, Luna took out her sword walking forward into the area. Jack held her shotgun, while Kasumi went invisible holding her SMG. 

Garrus uses his visor to scan the area, “Lorik is right, about four people are in here.” Turning his head to the stairs in the apartment, he nods towards it and Luna nods back at him going invisible and walking upstairs.

It wasn’t long before they heard talking.

“Hurry the hell up! We need that data if you want to get paid.”

Luna narrows her eyes, already calculating their attack. With her and Kasumi invisible they have an element of surprise.

“Jack, use your biotics to take one of them out while Kasumi and I get into position. Once they are trying to set themselves up Kasumi and I will strike. Garrus, you take out any stragglers.” 

Jack grins and readied herself for the signal. Once Luna nods at her she uses a shockwave at the group hitting one, and causing him to fly into the air. With a laugh, she warps him which causes a mini biotic explosion. This explosion caused him to blow up.

“Oops, Turian guy isn’t going to be very happy.” 

“Quick!” The leader screams, but Kasumi knocks out one of her teammates while Garrus shot the other one in the face. The leader gasps ready to use her biotic powers against them when she felt a sharp pain behind her.

“I don’t think so,” Luna whispers behind her darkly before slipping the sword out of her as she drops to the ground, dead.

Luna starts to look around the place when she saw something odd. Walking towards it she realizes it’s a safe and starts to hack into it. Once it was open she notices a disk inside.

“Bingo,” she whispers, picking up the disk and walking over to the group. Garrus was looking down while Kasumi pats his back as if reassuring him. Jack was laying down on the bed arms behind her head.

“I should really get a bed where I sleep. That cot is shit.” Jack grumbles.

“Don’t you sleep under engineering?” Kasumi asks.

“Yeah, nice place to be alone, horrible place to sleep. My ‘father’ ask if I want his room and I told him to suck a fart.” She laughs.

Kasumi chuckles at the silliness of the quote, as Luna crosses her arms looking at Jack.

“You know Zaeed is trying,” Luna said.

Jack rolls her eyes, sitting up from the bed, “I really don’t give a shit. He can call himself my father all he wants. He’s nothing to me just some guy who I sadly share blood with.” She said, standing up ready to head out. 

Luna stares at her angrily. She’s so ungrateful for having a father who wants what's best for her. Not wanting to deal with it anymore, Luna makes her way to the elevator and calls it. 

Walking back to Lorik who was on his Omni-tool, they stood in front of him. His eyes immediately went to Luna’s body as his mandibles twitch.

“A pleasure to see you again, my lady.” He purrs to Luna, and she coughs shifting from one leg to another. 

“We have the data,” giving him the disk, “Will you testify now?” She asks and before she could take her hand away he grabs and kisses it. She looks at him shock.

“I will do as you command. Thank you, for getting this data for me.” He pulls away and continues to look at her, “Is that all you need?”

Garrus was going to punch his father’s acquaintance in the face and he doesn’t give a fuck what would happen.

Taking a deep breath. he looks at Lorik, “Did you get my message about looking into a Salarian scientist that fled here?” He asks, trying to hold in his anger. 

“Oh yes, now I remember. I looked into it as you asked, his name is Dr. Heart correct?” Lorik asks, taking another swing of his drink.

Luna looks at Garrus weirdly, “You think he changed his name? It has been almost a year.” She asks. Garrus thought about it for a while before nodding.

“It would make sense for him to do that.” He answers, turning back to Lorik he nods, "Yes, I guess he goes by Dr.Heart now. So, if we could have that garage key to use the company Mako, that would be great." Garrus said crossing his arms.

Lorik stands up and walks towards Garrus and gives him the pass. Before they got too far, Lorik calls for Garrus. 

"Vakarian, a word?" He said, averting his eyes from Luna's backside and waits for Garrus who turns around and walks towards him.

Garrus was annoyed by the mission, Lorik, but most of all, Luna's attitude, and just wanted to get this crap over with; but of course, Lorik wants something else.

 _'If he talks about wanting Luna...'_ He thought, growling lowly.

Once he was in front of the older Turian, Garrus gave him an annoyed questionable look. Lorik's mandibles twitch in amusement, causing Garrus to roll his eyes. He then touches Garrus' shoulder, and leans in, whispering for only him to hear.

“No need to be so...aggressive, Garrus, I can smell you all over her, and her on you. Plus, I prefer my women closer to my age,” he pulls back, seeing Garrus shock expression, “Don’t worry, I don’t plan on telling your father.” He whispers as he walks away from them.

Luna heard the conversation but didn't say anything. 

After making their way to the garage and dealing with security for the second time. They were in a company Mako riding in the blizzard heading towards where Maelon, or Dr. Heart, is located. Garrus, of course, was driving after Kasumi talked Luna down from doing the driving.

It was a pretty long drive heading there and Luna had her head on the window, taking a nap. 

_His hands touch her face moving hair away from her eyes as he hums to her. It was strange hearing a Turian hum a song to her, but it was nice. She was pretending to sleep hoping he wouldn’t stop humming._

_“I know you’re awake,” he whispers as he stops humming._

_She groans, “I just want to keep hearing you hum. It was nice.” She said opening her eyes and looking at him._

_He chuckles, “It’s the only song I know. My mother would hum it to me when I was really young.” He said with a sad look._

_Moving her body closer to him, she lightly kisses his mouth plates and puts her arms around his waist._

_“Why do you look sad?” She pauses, “I notice you haven’t said a word about her ever since she went to Sur’Kesh.” Placing her hand on his face she looks at him worried, “Don’t tell me she...she passed away?” she asks nervously._

_He shook his head and sighs, “No….but she’s not getting better.” He admits quietly._

_Placing her head on his she starts to hum his mother’s song to him softly._

“Wow, you sound pretty good.” Jacks says a bit in awe. 

Luna shot up gasping, “W-what?” She panics.

“You were singing, Shep. I never heard that song before though. Where you got it from?” Kasumi asks.

Luna didn’t say anything, but from the corner of her eyes, she saw Garrus glaring at the road ahead, sadness in his eyes as he drives them to their destination.

As they prepare for exploring the lab, Luna begrudgingly walks over to Garrus and touches his shoulder.

He looks at her coldly, “What?” He snaps angrily, and she backs away shocked.

“I wanted to say sorry. I know how much that song means to you.”

He didn’t say anything and shook his head, “Doesn’t matter, let’s just go.” he said again, coldly and it hurts to hear it. 

_‘You were acting the same way. You have no right to complain.’_

As they explore the lab they notice a weird smell. It wasn’t the smell on Tuchanka, but it was definitely...wrong. 

Luna turns a corner and saw a dead body on the floor. Narrowing her eyes, she walks slowly towards it, sword in hand. The body was a dead Turian, she frowns.

“Looks like Maelon is using Turians now.” She sighs.

Garrus took a different turn but made sure to stay close by, just in case. He stops, momentarily, looking at a large and wide window noting the dark eeriness of it. 

He tries to look inside, squinting as physically as possible, while bringing his head closer to the window. His body was tense and ready to attack whatever jumps out. 

**THUD**

Garrus jumps back, assault rifle raise at the window, as the person behind it continues to beat against the window.

Jack walks over, “What the fuck is that?” She asks a little afraid.

This person, no, thing, had a shape like a human, but maybe it was Asari? Or even a Drell? 

The eyes were not there just empty holes of what would have been. The skin was slowly melting away as well as if acid was poured on them and it was sickly thin. Behind the window, as it pounds and scrapes, Garrus could pick up a sound.

It was screeching.

Her eyes were black looking at him as she screams him name. He could feel his body burning from within. The pain. So much pain. Make the hot, pain stop! 

Garrus was breathing hard, eyes wide as he drops his gun, and grabs his head trying to shake away the image of her sickly thin body and her wide unhinged jaw looking within his very soul.

“Garrus?” Jacks ask as he slowly feels himself freezing in fear; he begins to scream.

“Hey, shit! Garrus!” Jack screams, trying to get his attention. Luna rushes over noticing the tapping, thing, hitting the window. She shivers at it before turning her attention at the shaking and screaming Turian.

“What’s going on?” She asks, staying away from him.

Jack shrugs, “I don’t know we were just looking at that thing and he just became like this.” She said, pointing to him.

Luna bit her lips not knowing what to do. Remembering all the times he comforts her when she was breaking down from her trauma, she pushes aside her nervousness and walks over to him.

Garrus was breathing heavily in fear, and when Luna came into view, he screams louder at the top of his lungs, fighting against her, and pushing her away.

Luna, determinedly, grabs and holds him tightly singing his mother's song to him. 

Tears ran down her face wanting him to hold her tight, scared he would freak out even more knowing she was the one who is holding him right now.

When she felt his arm wrap around her, she looks up to see him calming down with his eyes closed before opening them and looking down at her.

Their eyes met and Garrus held her tighter as his mandibles twitch. Her heart was racing as he didn’t look away from, or at her, in fear.

“Thank you,” he whispers.

After a few mins pass, allowing Garrus to calm down, they stared at the being in the window.

“What is going on here?” Luna whispers, looking at the thing. She felt uneasy and something in her mind was itching at her, telling her something bad was going to happen. 

Kasumi was working on a door as they continued to study the creature. Luna took this opportunity to document what she is seeing. 

Suddenly, Kasumi screams, falling to the floor as multiple of these things came rushing out the door. They were hot to the touch burning at her light armor. 

“Kasumi!” Luna scream, rushing over with her sword in hand. With a slash, she kills the one that drops on top of Kasumi.

Jack uses her shockwave and ward to cause another biotic explosion, killing two of them at once. Garrus took out his assault rifle, aims, and made sure to shoot each one of them in the head not wasting any thermal clips.

There were so many. Each time they would take one down, either through biotics or gunfire, more would appear.

“Jack use another Shockwave!” Luna screams.

Jack huffs, “Can’t my ass is too tired to keep going.” She groans.

“They just keep coming!” Kasumi yells, reloading her thermal clips. She was once again about to get overwhelmed when Garrus shoots, clearing them away.

Luna slashes again at one of the creatures getting close to her, before using her electric slash at three more rushing at her.

“Just don’t make them touch you! Their touch feels like acid!” Garrus yells out, kicking one of them off him.

From the corner of her eyes, Luna saw someone watching. He stood there wearing black, yellow, and white armor with a Cerberus logo on. Glaring at him, she slashes at another creature before rushing towards him.

“Who the hell are you!?” She screams, “What did you do to the people here?!” She screams, again. He turns around to leave, but Luna growls and uses her biotics to boost her movement, climbing and jumping on crates to get to him. Before he could leave she uses her electric slash to prevent him from leaving the area. He uses a biotic slash, much to her surprise, to counter her attack.

Rushing towards her, he prepares himself to slash at her, but she blocks him with her own sword. Luna, quickly, studies his appearance up close, but notices he has a helmet on, which sadly means, she couldn't figure out who this was.

They clashed left and right as the others dealt with the creatures behind them. Seeing an opening, he uses his legs to kick Luna in the gut, causing her to curse as she held her gut for a moment. When she looks up he using his biotic energy to slam down onto the floor causing a ripple effect on the floor.

This caused everything to shake and become unstable. Luna drops on her ass and looks up to see him about to stab her, but she uses her sword to block him. Their face comes closer together as he wordlessly presses down on her.

“Who..are..you?” She grunts out, but he said nothing just stares at her while pushing his sword closer to her.

The man quickly looks up but was too late, as Garrus uses his body to slam into him, knocking him away from Luna. They both fall on the ground, with Garrus on the right, and the unidentified man on the left. Garrus groans and shook his head; before standing up. While Garrus was getting up, Luna took out her sniper and begins to shoot at the man, but he was quick and rolls out of the way.

As she kept shooting; the unidentified man does an acrobatic stunt to get away from the bullets before standing upright on a beam looking down at Garrus. Using his sword, he starts to charge his biotics and Luna saw, in shock, the mix of red/blue. He then slashes, and the large biotic slash quickly travels towards Garrus. Luna rushes in front of him, spreads her arms wide open, and uses a strong enough barrier to block the unknown man’s attack.

There was a push back as she lands in Garrus’ arms. Breathing heavily, she opens her eyes to see that the man was gone. She groans in annoyance, wondering who the hell that was working for Cerberus, why were Cerberus here, and what was Cerberus doing here.

After thinking deeply with no results, she realizes she was laying back, breathing hard, back against Garrus' chest, as he held her waist; she blinks, momentary, feeling herself relax in his arms.

"Spirits, I miss you," she heard him whisper, and she smiles. Just as she was about to say the same thing; painful memories begin to play inside her head reminding her, of Kaidan, Garrus, and the argument; she sighs, and regretfully pulls herself away from him. She could feel him wanting to hold on, but respectfully let her go.

 _"I'm sorry, Garrus,"_ She thought, sadly wishing the circumstances were different.

Turning towards Jack and Kasumi, she saw them breathing hard, and resting. The dead bodies of the creatures were littered everywhere.

Shaking her head, Luna starts to record around making sure to get as much data as possible. Walking inside the room Kasumi hacked open, she notes the putrid smell. She saw a console and walks over to it.

As she types away, Garrus starts looking at the bodies noticing the incisions. This gave him a hint of who this 'Dr. Heart' is. He knew this handy work, he wasn’t a fucking idiot. Anger starts to build inside of him as he made his way over to Luna.

“Cerberus is looking into advancing Humans by using a drug.” She whispers in fear. Garrus looks at her weirdly.

“I thought its common knowledge they want to advance Humans?” He said not seeing her visibly shake.

She could remember him using his biotic energy. It was red/blue just…like…

Luna backs away from the console trying to calm her mind, trying to stop the thoughts that ran through her mind. So many died, so many suffered. Even after Jack, and Teltin who cut ties with them; Cerberus would still be working on the same drug the Batarians used on them!

“Shepard?” She spins around, screaming at him, her eyes black. Garrus clutches his teeth and swallows fighting his fear. Taking a deep breath, he grabs her shoulder and kept looking in her eyes trying to calm her down.

“Luna, come back to me.” He whispers, blinking away the image of her as sickly thin.

_‘Just focus on her. Focus on, Luna.’_

“Garrus,” She whimpers, trying to control herself. She doesn’t want to scare him away again.

“It’s okay Luna, I’m here for you.” His sincerity tells her. When she finally calms down she sucks in her breath and shook her head.

“They are working on the drug that the Batarians used on me and my mother here.” She shook her head in disbelief, "Even after Teltin facility failure, and Jack; Cerberus still wants to study the fucking drug," she growls. 

Garrus looks around, “They are not doing a good job of it.” He remarks.

Luna sighs, “The drug killed people, Garrus. The only ones to survive it was me and my mother. Everyone got sick and died. We don't even know what happened in Jack's story and what Teltin has done to her and the children there since she won't talk about it.” She frowns.

Jack walks inside, “Because it's irrelevant! Whatever happened, fucking happened already. The last thing I want to do is sit around and bitch about it.” Jack said in annoyance, "Plus, what's the fucking point, right? I'm already fucked up might as well just accept who the fuck I am, and forget those fuckers." She grumbles, but there was a bit of hesitancy in her voice.

Luna stares at her and bit her lips thinking about her thoughts on being changed. Was it that easy to just...forget, no...no it wasn't and as much as Jack wants to be a hard ass, Luna could tell she's hurting from her past as well.

Garrus crosses his arms, “So, basically, the goal is to advance Humans and the best way to do it? A drug that could make you extremely powerful? I mean, I get it, who doesn’t want to be powerful? Power is an easy way to have people submit to your ideals, which I believe Cerberus wants.” He said.

She sighs, “I mean, yes, but this drug isn’t something to fuck with.” Luna angrily said. “Makes you powerful, yes, but it kills you from the inside out. Fucks up your system. It’s why these things were melting.” She sighs, looking at the creatures.

Garrus looks at the creatures, “The guy you fought had the same biotics as you, Luna. At least, I think, since his biotics glowed red/blue.” He describes.

Luna nods, “I noticed it too. We don’t have all the facts. Maybe they did successfully enhance Humans without killing and torturing them like what happened to my mother, Jack, and I. Maybe they didn’t. All we know is that we need more time and data.” She nods to some of the bodies, “Were also going to need a body or two to bring to my mother to study. Until then, we have to focus on Maelon.”

Garrus stares at her, “Maelon isn’t here. He isn’t Dr. Heart.” He said feeling his anger building as he spoke his new title.

Luna sucks her teeth, “Then who the hell is 'Dr. Heart'?” She said in annoyance.

“Dr. Saleon.” He said, quietly.

Luna ponders for a moment, “Wait the doctor who…” She didn’t continue and Garrus nods.

“Cerberus wouldn’t work with Aliens though,” Kasumi brings up reappearing from the shadows.

Garrus shook his head, “Of course not. Doesn’t mean they couldn’t take from him either way.” He said.

Luna looks at him confused and he sighs walking out the room looking at the dead bodies.

“Most likely they were sold to Cerberus. He would do anything for a profit. Cerberus saw the opportunity to have Human subjects for their sick experiments and took them. He’s still on this station just need to find him.”

Luna walks over to the console. As she reads and types away and nod, confirming what Garrus said.

“Nice going detective,” Kasumi said, giggling.

Garrus chuckles, “Not about being detective, just putting things together.”

“Ahh, the humblebrag.” She punches his shoulder and he laughs. Luna stares intensely but held herself together as she coughs getting their attention.

“How do we find him then?” She asks.

Garrus pulls out his Omni-tool and proceeds to call Lorik.

_“A pleasure to speak to you again, Garrus. Anything you need?”_

“The location you gave us was owned by Cerberus. Did you know this?”

_“Not really, no. That old lab was owned by the Salarian you wanted, no? He fled there a few years ago and went by 'Dr. Heart'. Noveria isn’t keen on morals so whatever he was doing there, he could do freely as long as he pays.”_

Garrus curses under his breath, “You could have said he was here years ago. The Salarian we are looking for should have fled here months ago.”

 _“You didn’t give me anything to answer, Garrus. You asked if I knew of a Salarian who fled here and I said, yes. Then you told me, you were coming here to discuss more. You never asked how long he’s been here. I just assume his ass was finally going to get caught by a Spectre for what’s he been doing.”_ Lorik says calmly.

“Wait, you knew what he was doing?” Garrus asks glaring at the screen.

_“Again, this is Noveria, Garrus. What people do here is to their own ambition. So what, if a few people die just so someone can make a profit. Happens here all the time and if not here than other places. If they have the money to sustain their investments there is nothing we could do.”_

Luna glares, “Are you fucking kidding me? The Council allows this?!” She yells.

Jack growls, “It’s always about fucking using the weak. These assholes need to fucking die here. I say we blow this place up!”

Lorik coughs, _“That is not necessary nor is that allowed without major fallout, my dears. You see, we have a great team of lawyers and Spectres who invest here.”_ He said, matter-a-factly.

“You think I give a shit about lawyers and Spectres?” Luna growls.

 _“No, of course not, you are a criminal, after all, Lunaria Shepard,”_ He pauses as she bit her lips, _“Which means, I am sure whoever you work for wouldn’t be so happy if you disrupt things here such as ‘blowing this place up’.”_ He said.

Luna opens her mouth to say something but didn’t as she realizes…he was right. The Shadow Broker most likely has business investment here, and there is no way she’s going to piss off her income.

_“Either way, now that I finally got your cooperation. Garrus, after you have helped me with the Administrator I have more access to where this doctor may be. If you still want it.”_

Garrus looks at Luna who was glaring at the ground. He wanted to comfort her knowing what it feels like having to go along with things you don’t want to.

“I do want to know where he is.” He simply said looking back at the Omni-tool.

 _“Peak 15. There have been some problems there as we have lost contact. Looks like 'Dr. Heart' has bitten more than he could chew. Good luck.”_ And he ends the call.

Luna didn’t say anything only gave them gestures that she was done and was ready to deal with Dr. Saleon.

The ride wasn’t too long, but the weather was getting worst. Luna groans as they walk through the chilly storm having to leave the company Mako behind.

“Honestly, I need a hot shower after this mission.” She grumbles. Garrus looks at her about to say something flirty, but knowing she would ignore him, he didn’t say anything, only sighs in disappointment.

As they walk inside the area first thing Luna notices is spores? She walks closer, and her eyes narrow curious of what's it doing here. When it explodes, she jumps back in fright gasping as the liquid from the exploded spore that almost hit her was now burning at the ground creating a little smoke.

Garrus turns around when he heard something break through the walls.

“Quick!” He shouts and they start to shoot at the creatures. As Luna uses an electric slash making sure not to get to close, her mind realizes what these things are.

“Kilxen!”

“No,” Garrus points out correcting her, “These are close, but they have a different shape! They are something else.”

Luna flips in the air and using another electric slash. Before backing up and hitting Garrus’ back breathing heavily.

“Alright, we need to find a way to deal with this because they are never-ending.” Luna gasps taking out her pistol and shooting.

Jack’s body glows as she rushes forward, Luna shouts for her to stop, but she kept running pulling her hand back as it fills with biotic energy she punches the place where the creatures kept spawning causing the wall to dent inward blocking further access.

After killing the last one Luna walks over the tired Jack and pats her back.

“Nice going, didn’t doubt your choice at all,” She jokes and everyone laughs.

They explore the facility some more, and Luna takes as much data as she could for the Shadow Broker. It wasn’t until they made their way in front of a VI which was spazzing out.

“He…llo. Wel..come to Peak 15,” the VI said, “I am Mira.”

Luna crossing her arms, “What happened here?”

Mira stands there for a moment, “Energy…is low. Must power down.” Before Luna could say anything Mira shuts off.

“Great.” She grumbles. Kasumi walks over to a console and starts typing away.

Luna sighs, “EDI can you help us here?”

“Of course, Commander, although you would have to link me to a console.” Luna nods and walks over to Kasumi who looks at her and smiles.

“Hey, need something?”

“Yeah, I need EDI to look into what’s going on here. Unless you found something that could be helpful?”

Kasumi nods, “Not much, but it looks like this place is having a technical problem. The Reactor needs repair, it’s just below us so I can do that.”

Luna was close enough to the console for EDI to pinpoint what needs to be fixed.

“Kasumi is right, Commander. Besides the Reactor, that needs to be fixed, the Landlines needs to be reconnected. I want to advise there are more Rachni soldiers where the landlines need to be reconnected.”

Luna’s eyes grew wide, “Rachni?! I thought they were extinct!?” She shouts making Jack and Garrus look over to them.

“What about Rachni?” Garrus asks.

“It seems an egg was found and now it is in the possession of a Dr. Heart. Who is working for Cerberus?”

“Holy shit…” Jack whispers.

“The Rachni? First the Krogans and now the Rachni, spirits.” Garrus whispers.

Luna groans, “Alright, we don’t have time to bitch and moan we need to stop this issue before bullshit happens.” She grumbles.

Kasumi went to deal with the reactor repair with the help of EDI, while Luna, Garrus, and Jack went to deal with the landlines.

Many dead Rachni soldiers, a fixed reactor core, and landline later they finally were able to progress onward.

It was quiet and dark as they walk through the halls. It wasn’t until they heard a moan that they turn towards it to see a human walking towards them slowly, before collapsing onto the ground.

Luna stood still, “Who are you?” She asks but receives no answer.

There were more moans and they used their lights to look around noticing they are surrounded by not only Humans, but Salarians, Turians, and Asaris.

Garrus notices their wounds and glares walking over to one of them who was breathing heavily. The Asari held his hand tightly before taking her last breath and dying in his arms. An image of Mayre appears in his mind.

Luna suddenly saw a movement from the corner of her eyes and turns to see a Rachni worker dragging one of the bodies. She gasps and shoots with her pistol, but the worker got away.

“Fuck,” she curses under her breath.

The lights suddenly came on and Luna panics seeing Kasumi putting her Omni-tool away.

“That’s much better. I love the dark, but it was just way too dark.” She laughs before seeing all the dead bodies on the ground, “Although, this isn’t what I expected.” She scratches her head.

Luna frowns, these bodies were different from the ones before. The only similar thing they have to each other were cuts where their organs were removed, but no signs of having the drugs in them.

“Shit, what the hell happened here?” Jack asks.

“We tried to leave.” A raspy voice said and they look towards a Salarian holding his side bleeding from his mouth.

They walk over to him as he coughs. Luna uses a biometric scan and shook her head.

“Nothing we could do.”

The Salarian laughs, “At least the pain is over. We did it to get money for our families, some of us did it to get a lighter sentence after we committed a crime.” He coughs, “I wish I would have just gone to jail, maybe that would have been better.”

Luna crosses her arms, “Why are there Rachni here?”

“The doctor is working on something for Cerberus, but we rebel not able to take the pain anymore. As you can see we lost.” He took a breath, “He’s hold up inside his office now with the Queen.”

“Rachni Queen?” Garrus asks.

“Yeah, it’s the only way they could have the Rachni spawns.” He shifts his body, “Something about mind control.”

“Why would Cerberus work with a Salarian? They hate aliens.” Kasumi wonders.

“Because Dr. Heart can give them what they want, bodies, and sure they could just take them for themselves, but if someone is willing to work with them why push them away?” He starts to wheeze.

“Where is Dr.Heart?” Luna asks knowing he’s about to die any moment now.

He coughs up more blood before slumping down, “Elevator…more people…” He dies.

Kasumi points to the elevator, “I think he’s talking about this one.” She walks over and presses a button.

Once it dings they made their way up to the office. Once inside Dr. Heart was typing away at the computer as the Rachni Queen stays in a container of some sort.

“Fuck you, Cerberus! I can’t believe they would leave me here! After everything, I have done for them! Should have known they would do this to me.”

Garrus clutches his assault rifle tightly, “Dr. Saleon we meet again.” He said, darkly.

The Salarian turns around to see them and stands there in shock.

“What? Who are you?” He backs up, but Garrus shoots his leg making him fall to the ground, screaming.

“Garrus, wait we can’t kill him. We need answers.” Luna calls out walking ahead of Garrus towards the whimpering Salarian.

“What…what do you want!? I’ll tell you anything if you let me live.” He begs.

Luna closes her eyes remembering what Garrus said he did and she looks him dead in the eyes.

“Why are you working for Cerberus? What does Cerberus want to do?” She growls.

“I’m not telling you anything unt-”

Garrus shoots his other leg and he screams holding the wound.

Luna grabs his shirt, “Tell me now.” She threatens

He gasps, “Why should I? You’re going to kill me anyway.” He groans.

Luna nods and smiles, “Yes we are, but wouldn’t you want to die quickly instead of awake? I have a mother who knows just how to keep someone alive as she pulls out their organs,” She smiles wider showing her teeth, “One by one,” She whispers promisingly.

Dr. Heart shivers, “Cerberus is trying to find a way to have Humans be the ruling party of the Galaxy.” He stumbles.

“How?”

“By making your race the strongest. With more power, people would have to submit," he gasps.

“Many Humans respect their lives and wouldn't want to go to war with the whole galaxy! We wouldn't stand a chance!” Luna yells.

“You would be surprised,” He chuckles and Luna punches him, “He knows! He knows not all Humans would want that and the dangers of going to war with the galaxy! He has a plan on how to stop anyone from rebelling against him.” He murmurs as blood drops from his mouth.

“Who is he?”

“There is no true name for him, not that I know of, but he goes by ‘The Illusive Man.’” He looks from Luna to Garrus, who has death in his eyes.

Watching Luna interrogate this murder, Mayre’s murder, made him impatient. He wonders if she’s going to take him along because he has fucking information about Cerberus. No, he won’t have any of that. He dies today.

Luna sighs, “Mind Control?” She asks.

“Indoctrination is a better word for it.” He said before spitting up some blood.

Luna stands up and starts to pace wondering what to make of this information.

“What does the Rachni have to do with this?”

“The Rachni, have these command signals they give to their young to make them do things. The Illusive Man wants to replicate it.” He looks at Luna.

“Why work for Cerberus? You know they were going to betray you no matter what, right? They hate aliens.”

He glares at the ground, “I had special privileges that they needed here on, Noveria. I didn't know what I was getting myself into when I got into an agreement with them. I tried to get out, but they were going to kill me and I didn't want that. So, I had to listen to them.” He laughs, “But I will die anyway.” He laughs again blood falling from his mouth.

Garrus glares at Dr.Saleon and takes out his Omni-tool showing him a picture of Mayre to the Salarian.

“Do you know who this is?” He asks angrily.

The Salarian looks at it narrowing his eyes, “No, should I care?” He asks before laughing knowing his time is up.

Not able to control his anger any longer, Garrus grabs his head and starts to bash it against the window of the Rachni Queen. The Queen leans away from it. Kasumi looks away from the gore in shock, Jack mouth was open in shock not aware of the anger Garrus has hidden.

Luna watches but the more Garrus bashes in the lifeless body of the Salarian she knew she needed to stop him. Luna touches his arm causing him to stop instantly, breathing heavily.

“It’s okay, he dead.” She whispers. Even if she told herself to keep her distance from him, she can’t, it’s too hard.

He turns around looking at her as he drops the body. Before she could say something, he hugs her tightly and she gasps in surprise.

“I don’t care how much you hate me right now Luna, I would never let anyone harm you.” He holds her tighter and Luna hugs him back breathing in his scent.

“Garrus,” She whispers.

“I really care about you, Luna.” He pulls back and looks her in the eyes, “I…you,” he takes a deep breath, “You’re very important to me.” He whispers and kisses her before she could say anything back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I Hope Dr.Saleon and Cerberus' subplot was believable enough. Thanks for reading.  
> Also, I hope you all don't mind if I make her use her sword more often LOL, when I played the shadow infiltrator I fell in love, okay.


	23. Closure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luna is starting to confront her pain, Jacob wants an answer, while Jack and Zaeed are ready to face the past.

Garrus was walking around, checking the area. At least that’s what he wants to do, instead, he was sulking after what happened after with Luna. After confessing his feelings to her and kissing her lips, she pushed him away.

He was heartbroken.

Sighing, he stops walking and looks down to the floor wondering how the hell he’s going to stop this pain in his chest. The fact he has to suffer like this all, because he feared her, made him want to laugh at the absurdity.

He almost broke into laughter at the fucking bullshit! She rejects him because he feared her! He told her he just needs time to adjust and he thought she would understand! Clearly not!

Garrus sighs, feeling the sadness within him. He was partly at fault, after saying what he said.

 _‘Spirits did I really have to say she was a mistake?’_ He groans rubbing his fringe. He begins to remember her face, her eyes. How broken she looked as she walks away sobbing. All he wanted was things to go back to normal. Now, they were over.

_‘Idiot’_

_‘Worthless’_

_‘You don’t deserve her.’_

_‘No, I don’t.’_ He thought sadly as he felt like a huge weight was upon him.

“Hey, Garrus!” Kasumi calls out to him, snapping him out of his thoughts.

He gave her a blank expression, “Hello Kasumi,” He said.

Kasumi places her hand on his shoulder, “Just wanted to come by and say, what Shep did was…well I don’t know what to say. I want to call her out on her shit, but I understand why she’s so hesitant and wants to keep you at a distance.” She said.

He stares blankly at her, “Doesn’t matter were over.” He said coldly, “I told her I just need some time to get used to everything and she…pushes me away when I couldn’t stop myself from feeling traumatized.” He growls.

“It’s just after Kaidan sh-”

He cuts her off, “Of course, Kaidan. Always about fucking, Kaidan.” He grunts, turning around and seeing Luna still talking on the Omni-tool to her mother about what to do about the Rachni Queen.

“I say give her some time and wait for her to come around. She really cares about you, Garrus.”

He shook his head, “I have to wait for her? What about me? Why can’t she wait for me? Is it selfish of me to need time to cope with almost dying?” He almost yells, “I understand she was hurt by ‘Kaidan’, but she needs to understand I am not him.” He glares at her now, “Just sick of being treated like this.” He whispers sadly head in hands.

“Talk to her then,” Kasumi tells him.

“She won’t listen to me, Kasumi. I’ve talked to her already, but all she does is push me away while building up walls.” He shook his head, “I’m not going to force her to talk to me, and honestly, I’m tired of trying.” He looks away and starts walking around again.

Kasumi stares at him and sighs shaking her head. This drama is something else.

“Yes, I understand the consequences, mom, but I just don’t want to be the person who causes a race to be extinct.” Luna grumbles.

_“This is your choice, honey, I won’t make it for it. Let’s just hope what the Queen said is true.”_

After taking control of the console, Luna type in the required code to let the Queen go. She looks up to watch the Queen look back at her. Her tentacles touch the glass pointing it toward Luna. Without thinking Luna places her hand onto the glass.

“Thank….You.”

***

While typing away at her computer in her cabin answering an email from one of her sources from the Eclipse, Luna sighs in sadness.

“I shouldn’t have rejected him.” She whispers closing her eyes, “I should have just…said sorry for acting like a bitch.” She grumbles.

Standing up she looks around her cabin and groans as now it was full of memories of Garrus. Looks like she was going to sleep either with Navi or her mother.

_“We can’t do this right now,” she grumbles, pushing him away while taking a mini breath making sure not to look at his devastated face._

_“Is that all you’re going to say to me?” he whispers, “After what I just told you?” He asks with so much sadness in his voice, but Luna didn’t face him._

_“We’re on an important mission right now, Vakarian. No reason to get feelings involved.” She said coldly walking over to the tank where the Rachni Queen is captured in._

_“No reason to get feelings involved!?” He shouts; Kasumi and Jack watch them awkwardly._

_“There are people here!” She shouts back glaring at him._

_“You think I give a fuck? I just told you how important you are to me!” He shouts._

_She looks away, “Doesn’t matter, you still fear me. I’m still a monster, still a mistake,” She coldly said to him._

_He looks at her sad, “I said…I was sorry…but, nothing I do will change your mind will it?” He said sadly._

_Luna didn’t say anything as he was walked away._

She clutches her pillow tightly trying to gain comfort from it. She could feel his arms around her telling her everything will be okay.

She sobs quietly to herself as the heartache sets in.

_“I really hate when you compare me to him.”_

Why must she be this way? Why must she keep comparing him to Kaidan?

_“Always about Kaidan. Everything about Kaidan! Stop fucking comparing me to Kaidan!”_

She couldn’t help it! How things ended with Kaidan was a pain that refuses to go away. He left her because she was a fucking monster and Garrus will leave her too! She knows he will!

_“How can I not when you act just like him!?”_

It was all her fault! Everything is her fault! She can’t run away from this problem and it hurts.

_“I guess that’s your type, huh? Men, who fear you?”_

She gasps and grabs the sheets as her heart was beating so fast she believes she was having a heart attack. She couldn’t breathe! Something was wrong!

_“Fuck You”_

As she tries to inhale, the oxygen she tried to intake wasn’t enough. She was suffocating as she held her throat as she wheezes hoping, just hoping she could just breathe!

_“I can only make so many mistakes in one day”_

Her eyes were starting to black, but she wasn’t screaming all she was doing was suffocating. Will her powers destroy the ship? Will her beating heart stop? Is this how she dies?

Suddenly, she heard her lullaby and felt a soft hand touch her chest making circles.

Her wheezing began to settle and she was able to take a deep breath, able to breathe again.

She lays there looking up at the space roof, watching the stars. The singing didn’t stop, which she was happy for. Tears still fell from her eyes as she turns her head to see her mother smiling at her as she sings her lullaby.

Wiping her tears away, Laena smiles, “Are you okay now?” She asks.

Luna sits up from her bed, “Y-yeah, now I am.” She whispers shakenly.

“EDI called for me when you would not respond to her,” Laena said rubbing her back.

Luna look at her alarmed, “Did…did I harm anything, anyone?” she asks worriedly.

“No, your powers were not causing any damage to anyone or anything.” Laena said reassuring her, “Maybe it’s time we meditate, like before?” She said holding Luna’s hand.

“I don’t know.” She looks away uncertain.

“You are holding things in, not allowing yourself to be free, Luna. I’ve been teaching Jack how to do it as well.” She said happily.

“Jack? Really?” Luna laughs.

“Yes, really! Meditation is good for the body and mind. It helps to balance yourself. People like us; me, you, and Jack, we need that sense of stability. Our powers demand it.” Laena said sternly.

Luna looks down, “I just…whenever I mediate I think of all the bad things in my life. Dad, slavery, Kaidan…G-Garrus” She stutters, “I’m just bad at meditating.” She whispers.

“Meditating isn’t about stopping the thoughts. It’s about allowing the thoughts to flow, Luna. It helps to bring you to the present, instead of focusing on the past or future.” She stands up and puts her hands on her hips.

“I don't know," Luna grumbles.

“Come on, we’re going to meditate just like before!” She said excitedly pointing to the floor.

Luna stares at the implication, “The floor, mom? What? No.” She said, crossing her arms.

Laena shook her head, “Stubborn as always.” She sighs.

“Well, I get it from you, just saying.” She grins at the annoyance on her mother's face.

Without saying anything else, Laena took two pillows from the bed and drop them off the ground.

Luna gasps, “Mom!?”

“We’re going to meditate, now sit down on one of the pillows.” Laena orders. Luna glares at her mother challenging her.

“You can’t force me to meditate.” She growls.

Laena smirks, before using her biotic powers to lift Luna and place her on the pillow. Luna gave her a shock expression.

“Now, sit,” Laena commanded and she sat.

“What the hell!?” She tries to get up, but her mother was still using her powers to keep her down.

“We use to mediate all the time, you and I, remember? You would love doing it with me because it gave us time to bond when I was not actively working at the clinic,” Laena said sadly.

Luna looks down and sighs because she was right, but ever since Kaidan...

Luna groans, is all her actions because of Kaidan?

_“Come on, Luna, Kaidan? Again?_

She looks down and hugs her legs to her chest in sadness. When she realized she could do that she looks at her mother, who was sitting on her own pillow, legs cross ready to meditate.

“Do I have to cross my legs like you?”

Laena smiles with her eyes close, “No, my love, you are free to sit however you want. Mediation only requires your mind and body in comfort.”

“If it requires my body in comfort, why couldn’t we just use the bed?” She asks, pouting.

Laena chuckles and opens one of her eyes, “Because, the bed is supposed to be used for resting. If you were to meditate on the bed, you would fall asleep.” She closes back her eyes and took a deep breath.

Luna didn’t say anything else and took a deep breath herself.

“Close your eyes,” Luna closes her eyes listening to her mother’s soothing voice.

“Breathe in through the nose, and breathe out through the mouth.”

Luna took in air through her nose, and breathe out through her mouth.

“Make sure to breathe into the stomach, not the chest.”

Luna breathes in, and then breathe out.

“Allow the relaxation to take over the body.”

Luna’s body suddenly went into a relaxed state as if she was floating in the air. It wasn’t until thoughts of Kaidan and the past begins to take over her mind.

“Allow the thoughts to pass, don’t be afraid of them. Allow yourself to feel the emotions that course through your body. Do not push away, do not hide from them, just allow them to come and go.”

Luna inhales again, and finally exhale.

***

They were in a shuttle heading to Torfan as there was a battle with Batarians there; Kaidan looks at Luna.

“You going to be okay?” He whispers to her worriedly.

She bit her lips and nods, “Don’t worry, I’ll be okay.” She whispers back trying to hide her fear.

When they arrived at Torfan it was a battleground. Batarians and Humans alike fighting each other to gain control of this colony.

Luna felt a bit hesitant as Major Kyle spoke to them, giving them orders on what to do. She took a deep breath; nervous.

“I’m with you, okay?” Kaidan whispers trying not to speak over Major Kyle.

“I…thanks.” She whispers back smiling, but she could feel herself panicking after seeing Batarians kill massive amounts of Humans.

It wasn’t as if she never saw a Batarian killing Humans, but this was different then a normal day of Omega or a day as a Marine. This was a battle, and at worst, a slaughter; just like on Mindoir. She still hasn’t confronted her demons about what happen and she could tell, this was a test.

When they landed, her mind went wild at the massive amount of chaos and gunshots.

“Move, Move, Move!” Major Kyle yells and they were out of the shuttle and into the warzone.

Luna was breathing heavily as the gunfire flew past her. Taking out her sniper she aims and shoots getting one in the head. No time to celebrate, she had to kill another. Quick, move to the left to not get killed. Dodge. Take a breath. Inhale, exhale. Now move again.

She uses her tactical cloak to rush forward to slash at an unexpected Batarian. Hearing a scream and she spins around to see one of her comrades get shot in the head.

Fuck

Rushing away from the field she runs and slides undercover as more Batarians show up.

“Shepard!” Kaidan yells, and she turns to see him running into cover with her.

“Kaidan, I…I’m glad to see you’re alive! We’re losing so many of us!” She gasps out trying to stop the ringing in her ears.

“Yeah! This is getting really bad! Major Kyle isn’t responding!” He said before using a warp onto a Batarian that was rushing to their area.

“Shit! What do we do?!” She asks, feeling scared, and closing her eyes as the thoughts of Mindoir rushes in mind.

“I’m trying to figure that out myself!”

A loud blast was heard and they flew forward. Luna looks up to see multiple Batarians being dropped off. She looks at Kaidan who was knocked out from the blast.

“Kaidan? Kaidan!” She screams trying to wake him up. When they were getting shot at she pulls him away into safety.

“We need back up! This is Lieutenant Shepard calling for backup!” She screams over the radio, but all she heard to static.

“Fuck!”

She was panicking now trying to calm her breath. All the human bodies on the ground weren’t helping her relax. It kept bringing back memories of the slave ship and what happened to her.

“Human,” Is all she heard as she looks up to see a Batarian looking down at her, and suddenly she remembers his toothy grin.

“Get away from me!” She screams at him and he flew back. 

Luna grabs her head and her eyes went wide trying to silence the screams in her head, trying to make the pain go away. She lets out a scream which causes a shockwave within the area knocking multiple Batarians away.

“Leave me alone! Stop hurting me!” She screams slashing through a Batarian, her mind breaking every time she saw their four eyes.

“No! No! Stop! Please! I’m sorry! Don’t hurt me, master!” She screams again stabbing a Batarian in the face.

Batarians were trying to run away from her, but she unconsciously chased them telling them she’s sorry before killing them.

Alliance soldiers watch in horror as she butchers each of the Batarians that came her way. They were happy about her taking them down, but her powers scared them.

She screams again, so loud the earth beneath her feet crackled and crumbled. Rocks flew in the air and dispersed into the crowd of fighting soldiers.

“It hurts! Why does everything hurt!? It’s so hot! Help! Me!” She screams again, slashing through the air and causing a biotic wave to cut through and hitting their Batarian enemies.

When she stops screaming she begins to walks the battlefield in a daze, broken and breathing heavily. Everything was silent as Batarians retreated from the area, many of her comrades, dead, killed by the Batarians...just...like...the...ship.

She sobs, dropping to the ground as she holds one of her dead comrades in her arms. She sobs wanting it to be over, wanting to die. Until, she heard movement and turns towards the sound. In front of her was a Batarian who was shaking in fear of her, while on the ground. Crawling to him, she sobs as he tries to run away.

“Make it stop, master. Make it stop.” She whimpers, catching up to him and grabbing his head. He tries to pull her off, but she wouldn’t let go, she was too strong.

Her hands glow red/blue looking at him, “Please Master! Please! I’ll be good! I promise!” He screams as her hands were squeezing his head.

“Let go! Let go, slave!” He yells hoping if he plays along with her she would, “P-please Humans,” he begs.

“Shut up! Shut up! ShutupshutupshutupShutup! Shuajatgae!” She was foaming at the mouth as her eyes turn black, and her head shakes uncontrollably while she squeezes his head until it pops in her hand.

She screams.

There was a sound and she turns.

“Lu-Luna?” Kaidan gasps.

Her mind stops working for a moment, trying to figure out who this person was. Kaidan got close enough to her and wraps his arms around her; she starts to calm down.

“Its okay, Luna. I promise you everything will be okay. I’m here now, please come back to me, my love.” He whispers, pulling away to look at her face. Kissing her softly he smiles as she gasps and blinks. Her eyes were still black, but she was back.

“Ka-idan.” She whispers as tears fell from her eyes.

“Hey,” he whispers touching her cheek lovingly, “Let’s get out of here. We…we need to leave before you lose control again. The Alliance will take care of the rest.” He said standing up and pulling her up with him.

_‘The Alliance’_

Kaidan tries to pull her with him, but she wasn’t moving, instead, she was looking at the ground wide-eyed.

“The Alliance,” She whispers, looking up to him slowly and he starts to back away.

“Yeah Luna, the Alliance. Remember? We’re soldiers for the Alliance.” He said staring at her.

“We prayed for the Alliance. We begged for the Alliance. We waited for the Alliance!” She growls, sending out a shockwave at him while looking at him angrily; which sent him flying back into a Mako and falling to the ground.

He gasps, “Luna!” He yells, not able to get up.

“I was tortured and made into this thing! I just wanted to live a normal life! But it’s impossi **ble!** ” She screams, walking slowly towards Kaidan, as he watches in horror fearing for his life.

Luna starts to cackle, her mind slowly breaking with each step as the banshee inside begs to come out. Kaidan’s and Luna’s eyes met as she gave him a sick twisted smile allowing the pain to take over her.

Suddenly, she stops moving and stood still. Her heart was beating so fast in her chest and her lungs weren’t getting enough oxygen. Luna stood there, wide-eyed before dropping to the ground, her energy spent.

When she woke up her head was in a large amount of pain and she groans trying to figure out where she was.

She gasps, “Torfan! Kaidan!” She slowly gets up and walks outside the medical area.

Quietly, she limps trying to find him as memories begin to flood into her head. When she saw him standing there talking to someone on his Omni-tool, she swallows worried, hoping to whatever exist to please, please! Make him not hate her.

“Kaidan,” she whispers, getting closer to him, but he flinches and she stops, noticing the fear in his eyes as he looks around as if trying to find an escape.

He didn’t say anything just panics and starts breathing heavily. Walking closer to him, he presses hard against the window shaking his head.

“Kaidan, please…please. I’m so sorry for what I have done, please don’t be scared of me. Don't hate me,” Tears were forming in her eyes as she sobs.

“I am scared of you,” He finally admits as he stands as far away from her as possible.

“I told you what I am,” she sobs, hoping he wouldn’t leave her. He was her everything, how can she live without him in her life.

“I know, but," he pauses, "this isn’t what I pictured. You looked at me as if you wanted to kill me, Shepard.” He hesitates as he closes his eyes and took a deep breath.

Hearing him call her Shepard while not on the battlefield, was a red flag, and as much as she didn’t want to think about it; she knew this was the end of their relationship.

“Shepard? Last name basis now?” No Lulu, Luna; just Shepard. It hurts, the pain inside was burning again. She tries to control it, but she could feel the Hot. Pain growing within.

He sighs, “Shepard, we can’t be together anymore.” His eyes were staring directly at her, there was no hesitation. Her heart was now beating fast like it was going to explode pounding hard and loud in her chest.

Pain.

Fire.

Harder.

Louder.

She tries to hold the thing within her down, but this pain was too strong, a small sob daring to escape.

“Please, give me another **chance**!” Her voice is loud and deeper. It echoes as her eyes begin to darken becoming dark. This makes him wince in fear and she notices.

“Shepard…please…” He whimpers now trying to back even further away from her.

“I’m not a mon **ster**.” She cries, but his eyes told her everything she needed to know.

It wasn’t long before soldiers came in to restrain her, but she sobs trying to get to Kaidan, whose fearful eyes burned in her memory.

“You promised!” She screams her eyes black, “You promise to always love me! You told me you understand me! You….you! You said….” She gasps in defeat as they begin to put her to sleep, “You said you will…always be there for me.” Her world went dark.

***

Luna opens her eyes and took a deep breath. Her mother stares at her as she took another deep breath.

“How do you feel?”

“Honestly? Not good, there is still a pain in my heart.” She whispers.

Laena touches her shoulder, “It's okay, as time passes you will learn to accept and let go of this pain inside.” She smiles, softly while standing up.

She said looking up at her mother, “These memories, will never go away will it?” She asks.

“Some will, others won’t, but don’t think of the future. Think of the present. Learn to accept the past for what it is and let go.” She said

“Do you have any advice? For this pain in me.”

“Meditation, my moon.”

She scoffs, “That’s all you got for me? What about, I don’t know, getting closure from how a relationship ended?” She asks.

Laena smiles, “Meditation will help you reach the closure and peace you wish for. It will help you forgive yourself. To live and let live.” She said.

Luna looks at her hopeful, “But, what if I talk to Kaidan, so I can finally let him go?” She asks

“No one can give you this closure, but you.”

Once her mother left the room Luna groans in annoyance. Archangel jumps onto her lap and meows. She was deep in thought as she combs his fur and he purrs.

_“You are so adorable! It’s like I’m petting Archangel.”_

_“Technically you are petting Archangel, although, I hate to be compared to an animal.”_

A small smile grew on her face as she pets her cat, thinking of Garrus.

After an hour has passed, Luna exits the elevator on deck three, for a moment, she thought about heading to the battery to speak to Garrus but decides to head to the Library.

Walking through the door to the Library she saw Kasumi speaking to Jacob, who is sitting by the table.

“Just ask her, Jacob, she will help you, I promise,” Kasumi said getting annoyed with him not listening to her.

Jacob sighs, “I don’t know Kasumi, asking her seems like a bother now. After everything…” He quietly stops talking when looking at the red-eyed Commander.

Luna smiles at him, “You want to ask me something, Jacob?” She asks, walking over to one of the bookshelves and checking out the books.

“It’s nothing, Commander. I know you are busy with trying to find Maelon.” He said.

Luna groans, “That Salarian is so…slippery. I hope one of my contacts would find him. I really don’t want to pay the Shadow Broker for information right now.” She grumbles.

“You pay the Shadow Broker?” Jacob asks.

Luna found the book that looks interesting and smiles, “Yeah, and he’s not cheap. Usually, I would go to Gar…” she pauses, “Usually, I would ask for the money from the person who wants that information, but things are kind of rocky right now. So, I am using a cheaper way, contacts.” She shrugs.

Kasumi sighs, “You know Shep, all you have to do is talk to him,” She said touching Luna after using her tactical cloak.

Luna shook her head, “Not….not yet, first I need ‘closure’.” She quotes rolling her eyes and thinking of her mother.

Kasumi laughs, “Funny you say ‘Closure’,” she quotes looking at Jacob.

He sighs and Luna looks at him oddly before taking a seat at the table. Waiting for him to talk, she decides to read the synopsis of the book, ‘Dragon Age: Origins.’

“I have a brother and ten years ago, he went missing. After years of trying to find him, I finally gave up and told myself he was gone.” He pauses to look at Luna who was giving him a look to keep going, “I told Kasumi one night and she told me about you. It’s one of the reasons why I went to Bekenstien to help Kasumi.” He finishes.

“One of the reasons?” She asks raising her eyebrow.

Jacob coughs as his face felt hot looking at Kasumi for some help, but turns out, she used her tactical cloak. Glaring at the spot Kasumi was, he grew some confidence and turns to Luna.

“Uh…yes, I didn’t want to care too much about it; but the thought kept running through my mind. The Alliance couldn’t find the ship my brother and his girlfriend were on; and I just thought…maybe you could.” He asks.

Luna places her head on her palm as her hand rests on the table looking at him.

“I need to know the name, and I hope you could pay the fee.”

He nods, “Yes if you could find the information out for me, I’ll give you all that I have.” He said desperately.

“Name?”

“The Gernsback.”

***

Surprisingly, the Gernsback had a beacon set out as a distress call reporting a crash on the planet Aeia. They landed with Kenn flying off telling them to call once the mission is over.

Luna looks around confused as they walk over to the crashed ship. This was strange as it’s been ten years, so why is the distress signal now functional.

As they walk, they saw the distress beacon VI sitting in the sand and it looks like it needed something to work.

“Tali could you get it to work?” She asks and the Qurian starts to work on it.

Jacob shook his head, “This doesn’t feel right, Shepard.” He said looking at the ship.

“Why don’t we check inside the ship? See if we find anything while Tali works.” Kasumi offers.

Luna nods and asks if Tali will be okay, and she said yes. Exploring the ship was odd and a bit aery. There was something wrong here and it made her shiver.

Kasumi touches a recording and they all stood there listening to the message.

“Looks like there was a change in Command,” Luna said thinking over the message.

Jacob shook his head, “Wasn’t my brother’s voice, and was hoping for it.” He sighs.

“There is another console,” Kasumi calls out clicking on the other one. As they listen to this recording Luna cringes at the other man’s voice. Kasumi clutches her hand in anger.

“Sounds like they use their power against the women of this ship!” Luna glares.

“Shepard, I fix the VI!” Tali yells out to them.

Luna turns to Jacob, “I hope you understand what this means, Jacob.” She points at him.

“My brother is an honorable man, he wouldn’t do that shit! Plus his girlfriend wouldn’t allow him to stoop that low, she’s too hot-headed.” He states crossing his arm.

They made their way to Tali and once they turn on the VI, they listen to everything it stated. There was a Captain who ended up dying when the ship was crashing. The change was within Captains under duress to a man named, Ivern. They also learned the flora of this planet is toxic and any person who ate this flora would degrade mentally.

“So this was set up a week ago? No wonder, I couldn’t find out what happened to him.” Jacob whispers.

Luna crosses her arms, “If that’s so it means there are people who survived, and if I am piecing things together correctly, the men in charge used their power to control the food which caused mental degrade within the women.” Luna sighs, “Which means, they were much easier to take advantage of.” She looks at Jacob.

He bit his lip but said nothing while looking away from her. She stares at him for a moment too long, before walking away noticing an area they could have gone.

It was a cave-like area full of Human feces and flora? Luna groans at the smell pinching her nose tight.

“This is gross, and I hope it doesn’t kill me.” Tali mumbles.

“We Know! Fight! Take him dead!” They heard. Following the voice, they saw a man dressed in torn clothes resembling uniforms from the Gernsback talking to other men that were similarly dressed.

“They think we can’t! We win!” The men all cheer before standing up.

Quickly, they hid in the shadows as the group of men passes by. Once they were gone, they came out of the cave and saw them walk across the beach to a different area.

“Who is him? Why do they want to fight? What do they know?” Jacob asks.

“Only one way to find out, we need to follow them.” Luna orders and they set out.

It wasn’t long until they made it to a gate. Standing there, they watch as the men scream and shoot at the wall before forcefully entering through the gate; screams were heard coming from beyond the gate and Jacob got up quickly.

“We need to save them!” He pleads to Luna who nods, and they rush out.

Getting to the village they saw the men from the cave fighting other men, who were wearing the same uniforms as the men from the cave but the clothes were cleaner and more refined.

The group quickly disperses and shot at any men, from either group, trying to harm any of the women and children. Luna slashes at a man who was going to shoot a crying woman in the face and gave her a hand.

“Thank…you,” she whimpers, and Luna gave her a small smile.

“Oh hello!” Kasumi whispers to one of the rampaging men before shooting him in the head.

Jacob uses his pull at one of the men before throwing him at another man. Tali hacks a YMIR to attack the men and orders Chatikka to shock the enemies.

It wasn’t long before the battle was over and they all stop while breathing heavily and looking around. Some women and children weren’t fortunate, but most did survive the attack.

Jacob looks around at the dead men wondering if any of them were his brother, a part of him hoping he was among the dead who fought against, rather for.

“Are you okay?” Kasumi asks a woman who was holding her daughter tightly in fear of her. Luna stood there studying the camp and realized besides the clean uniform men, who were all dead…it was just women.

“Kasumi, check to see if any boy children are here?” Luna directed. They searched, as many children and babies around the camp, but it was a clear picture, it was only females.

“What happened to the boy children?” Tali whispers in horror, “I mean…if there are boy children.” She tries not to think about it.

“There is no way in hell these women could only give birth to females. Unless the flora here…maybe caused them to only have female children?” Luna wonders out loud.

“You came from the sky?” A woman asks looking at her.

Luna gave her a sad look, “Yes, we came from the sky.”

“That means you are here to rescues us?” She said hopeful and the other woman perked up walking over to them surrounding them.

“You take us away from place. Far away?” Another woman whimpers.

Kasumi frowns looking at Jacob who was trying to figure out what this all means. She could tell he was scared and worried. Taking him away from the talking women they were alone.

“Hey, talk to me.” She asks, cupping his cheek with her hand.

“My brother, he wouldn’t do something like this right?” He whispers and Kasumi sighs shaking her head wondering what to say.

Looking at the group of women and children she frowns, “I don’t know Jacob, ten years on this place…I just don’t know.” She said.

Jacob sighs, “If…we find him would you hate me? I would understand if you don’t want to be with me anymore.” He said sadly and she giggles.

“Oh shut up Jacob, you helped me so much during the years we’ve known each other. I don’t know how I would feel about your brother, but I do know how I feel about you.” She whispers before kissing his lips reassuring him.

He smiles holding her close, “Thanks,” and they kiss again.

They were on the move again going more north of the camp where the ‘Leader’ sits.

“They kill the boys and keep the girls. Fucking sick, fucks.” Luna growls as she could feel the anger boiling in her.

Jacob was also upset but didn’t say anything just hoping that his brother didn’t add to the problems here.

A scream was heard and they watch as two, clean uniform, men try to wrestle something from a woman’s arms.

“No, he mine! He mine!” She screams pulling at them. They could finally tell it was a baby, and it looks like she just gave birth.

“Females only!” The man screams kicking the woman in the face, and Jacob knew who that was.

“Natalie!” He yells out and the men turn towards him ready to shoot, but he uses pull against one of the men and as the guy flew toward him he shot him in the head.

Kasumi took this opportunity to use her tactical cloak and appear behind the guy holding the infant. Using her pistol she shot him in the face and grabs the crying infant from his arms. Turning around she walks over to the crying and bleeding, woman.

“Here, I believe he’s yours.” She said softly and she sobs holding her arms out hugging her baby.

Jacob walks over to her, “Natalie, are you okay? Where is Greg?” He asks

Natalie looks at him and gasps, “Greg, you back for me,” she sobs, “look he’s you, Jacob.” She whispers.

Jacob looks in shock looking down at the baby in her arms, it was his brother’s son?

“See Jacob, daddy, here.” She whispers again soothing the baby.

“I’m not Greg, Natalie, I’m Jacob his brother. Don’t you remember me?” He asks slowly. If she was this happy to see Greg, that means he’s not in cahoots with the leading men here.

She gave him a sad look, “No, Greg? Told him no,” she cries, “Told him leader would kill.” She sobs holding her son tighter.

Jacob stood up and look at Luna with alarm, “Shepard, we need to find my brother and fast! It looks like he went to fight the ‘Leader.’” He said.

Luna nods, “She can’t be alone here though.” She said.

“I could stay here, Shepard. Chatikka and I would keep her safe, I promise.” Tali said taking out her drone.

Walking their way north they fought some mechs and are now realizing the lack of human enemies.

“Looks like he ran out of men?” Jacob asks

Luna didn’t get to answer when another more LOKI mech emerges to attack them along with a YMIR mech.

It didn’t take long for the three of them to take the mechs out and kept walking forward until they heard a coughing sound.

“W..wa..ter,” Luna looks ahead to see multiple men tide to poles beaten and starving to death. Some were even dead and it made her sick; she knows what it’s like to starve.

“Cut them down! Be careful!” She yells out and they follow her instructions.

When Jacob got to the last one he looks up to see his brother looking down at him. He was badly beaten but look as if he was just put there.

“Greg,” he whispers, taking his brother down from the pole. Greg didn’t say anything just touch his face in amazement, studying it in his own way. Tears went does Greg's eyes as he cries holding his baby brother tightly in a hug.

“Jacob,” He said, and Jacob held in his tears at seeing his brother after ten years. He thought he was dead and gone, but he was alive. Although he was very thin and looks like a caveman, Jacob didn’t care, he has his brother back.

“I see you found them.” They turn towards a man glaring at them using a cane to walk to them.

Luna glares, “Are you Ivern?” she glares.

He looks at her blindly, “I am Ivern, and I used that distress beacon to save my people from death.”

Greg growls, “You hurt! You die!” He said slurring.

Ivern looks at Greg, “As you can see my people have…degraded mentally because of the flora here. We couldn’t fix the distress beacon fast enough, ten years we were stuck here,” he said as sad as possible.

Luna growls, “Do you honestly think I’m some damn idiot?” Before he could answer she knees him in the gut.

“Wh-what are you doing!? Didn’t you come here to save me…us?!” He screams clutching his gut, kneeling forward.

“You are disgusting and stupid to think we’ve come here to save you,” She glares at him before kicking him in the head, causing him to fall on his back; she then plants her foot on his throat.

“W…wait,” He gasps out, his nose broken and blood spilling from his lips.

Greg screams rushing over to him and stomps on his face multiple times before it was mush on the ground.

Jacob touches his brother's shoulder, “Greg, Greg! It's okay, he’s dead. He can’t hurt you anymore.” He said as his brother drops on the ground and cries his heart out.

“Greg?” Natalie calls out.

“Shepard, I told her we can’t leave! She wouldn’t listen, this woman can scream.” Tali said.

Greg gets up and runs past them all to his family holding them tightly, and Luna smiles happily.

_‘At least there's a happy ending to this hell.’_

“EDI, tell my mother we need to call Anderson. We’re going to need help transporting these people.”

“Yes, Commander,”

***

“Thank you again, Commander, for…helping me. It gives me great closure to finally find my brother.” Jacob said as they sat down in the library again.

“No problem Jacob, glad I could help you get closure.” She smiles realizing how much that word is being used lately, closure.

“My brother and his family will stay on the Citadel as they heal from their wounds and regain their mental capabilities. There is no guarantee they will have their minds back, but…I could hope.” He said.

“What about you Jacob? You’re not going to stay with them?” She asks.

He laughs scratching the back of his neck, “No, actually I was going to ask if I could join you? Heard the pay here is good and I could do with some work.” He asks nervously.

Luna narrows her eyes, “What did you do before?”

“I smuggled. After the Alliance gave up on finding my brother, I gave up on them and made my way into smuggling. It’s how I met Kasumi, she has a lot of things to smuggle.”

“Hey, it was only a few things. Well, maybe a lot of few things.” Kasumi said appearing behind him leaning on his back.

“Always on top of me, huh?”

Kasumi laughs, “Of course! You know you love it,” she flirts.

Luna felt jealous staring at them banter with each other.

Luna smiles, “Well, Jacob, I wouldn’t mind you on my crew. Just know everyone pulls their own weight. I think I could use your smuggling skills when the time calls for it.” She smiles and nods at them before leaving the room.

***

Three days after Jacob’s mission; Luna was meditating as her mother suggested and it was helping her clear her mind after past events. Taking in a deep breath she allows the thoughts to pass by her mind without pushing them away.

“Commander, Jack is causing some damage in engineering,” EDI spoke.

Luna opens her eyes, and not saying a word, made her way to Engineering.

“Who the fuck do you think you are to tell me what I can and cannot do?!” Jack yells wanting to biotically fling her father into the wall.

Zaeed rolls his eyes, “I am your father! And I believe it’s a bad idea to go to a goddamn place that traumatized you!” He said angrily.

Two hot-heads in one area, Luna groans, that was not good at all.

“What’s going on down here?” Luna asks, looking at the two. Jack looks like she was going to use her powers on someone or something.

“Jack wants to go to Pragia. I think it’s a bad idea as this could cause her to breakdown.” He growls, glaring at her.

“You think I’m some damn kid? Well, guess what, old man, I am a fucking adult; and I could fucking go where I please!” She screams.

Luna could feel the headache, “Stop! Jack, if you want to go to Pragia, then we will go. Zaeed, whether you like it or not, Jack is a grown woman.” Luna said sternly.

“Yeah, you missed the chance to ‘teach me’ shit when you fucking abandoned me.” She said angrily sitting down on her cot, “Can you two leave me the fuck alone, I need to think.” She looks away from them playing with her short ponytail.

Zaeed stares at her before walking away. Stopping by Luna he looks at her, “I want to join you on this mission.” He said, and walks away not allowing her to answer.

***

When they arrived on Pragia, it was raining pretty hard. Jack wasn’t complaining, and she was barely wearing any clothes.

Looking at the facility she could already see the damage Jack caused and how the wildlife took control over.

Walking inside a broke door, Jack pauses to look around; she could feel her body tense up as she remembers what it was like being here, the taste of freedom.

“This place is the first time I’ve ever felt free. I was out of hell, I survived hell.” She whispers closing her eyes and breathing in.

“I told you it was a bad idea to come here.” Zaeed grumbles and Jack glares at him.

“No one told you to fucking come here.” She growls at him and he shuts up.

They pass by a console and Luna starts to type to activate it. Hoping for some info she could sell to the Shadow Broker.

Listening to the audio log didn’t help much as they already knew the facility went rouge and didn’t work for Cerberus anymore.

As they continue the journey throughout the area, they made it to a large room with a fighting pit in the middle of the area. Jack touches the ring, closing her eyes and taking deep breathes trying to calm her emotions as she remembers.

“This is where they would put me against others. They would…reward me when I kill the other kids and hurt me if I didn’t.” She whispers as her voice shakes.

“Reward you?” Luna asks.

“Drugs, lots of fucking drugs. It made everything…easier…I was addicted to it. Needed it in my system to function. If I hesitate they would shock me.” She hugs herself, and Luna grips the fighting pit tightly.

Zaeed glares at the pit before looking away in shame, if only he was there to protect her if only he didn’t…give up his search for her.

“That’s cruel, what was the point?” Luna asks looking at Jack.

Jack glares at the pit, “Does it fucking matter? They told me to kill and so I did! It was either them or me!” She angrily walks away, “Let’s just fucking go were getting closer!”

Luna turns to Zaeed who wasn’t saying a word, his eyes were closed and he was clutching his hand in a fist.

“Don’t blame yourself, you didn’t know, Zaeed.” She whispers before walking away.

Zaeed stood there looking back at the pit, Josephine would be ashamed of him.

Hacking into another console they listen to the audio logs again. As they listened they learned that before Jack got out, the other kids started a riot.

 _“They are expendable! Keep Jack alive,”_ The security officer heard before being killed.

“Bullshit, I escaped on my own after my guards disappeared,” Jack growls.

“We should turn back,” Zaeed said falling deeper into guilt.

“What? Not happy seeing what this place did to your ‘daughter’? Well, boo fucking woo, it’s time to fucking face the storm ‘dad’, because it only gets fucking worst.” She glares at him and walks ahead.

They made their way past a few cells and Luna could already tell it was made for the children.

“The rooms here are pretty small. Reminds me of the little rooms on the slave ship.” Luna whispers surprised how calm she was at this moment. Usually, she would break down in tears possibly hurting someone…maybe the meditation is working.

“Yeah, well, I had it worst.” Is all Jack said, a hint of guilt in her voice as they walk past the numerous cells.

They suddenly came into a smaller room, a morgue.

“Still smell like the dead,” Luna whispers in disgusted by the smell. Looks like it only affects her because the two other didn’t seem to mind.

“Why did…this place need a morgue….?” Jack wonders, “I mean, yes, I killed in the pit, but…I didn’t…kill that many.” She whispers, looking around.

“Looks like they were the ones killing them. You said something about drugs, about how it made you feel better.” Zaeed said, “I’m sure they experimented on these goddamn kids to make sure you ‘feel good’.” He said, glaring.

“No, that can’t be fucking right. I had it worse. I had to deal with the shit they did to me." She growls, "This place is bullshit!” She screams, rushing out of the place.

“Jennifer!” Zaeed said, running after her.

Luna stood in this room hearing the word experiment made her want to cry and hide, but she wasn’t going to. Walking around she begins to study.

Zaeed finally caught up to Jack who was just staring at a window. She shook her head in sadness before squatting down and hugging her knees with her arms.

“They…it’s a two-way window…I would bang on the door, hoping…wishing someone could…but it’s a two-way window.” She whispers. Holding back tears, she sucks in a breath. Zaeed touches her shoulder and she unconsciously leans into it.

After a few minutes, she stands up and looks at him. Not saying a word, she walks ahead. Zaeed turns back to see if Luna is with them, she was not. Knowing Luna could take care of herself he follows Jack.

When they made it into the operating room, Jack touches the seat and sighs. Zaeed studies the room and saw a console.

Turning it on they listen to the scientists talk about the children being used as test subjects in the benefits of creating a super Biotic.

_“The Batarians were almost there if we could maybe learn more about Red-X, Jack will become even more powerful. Thankfully, Jack has taken well to the drug, still, it needs more studying. That means we’re going to need more test subjects.”_

“So, Red-X, huh? That’s what they’re calling it.” Luna said, shaking her head, and the two turn to look back at her.

“Guess you were right, they were using the kids here to make me powerful,” Jack said, looking down.

Luna sighs walking over to another console, playing the vid. The vid spoke of Jack getting loose and the rest of the ‘subjects’ were rampaging. As a last-ditch effort, they decided to head to Ascension.

Jack gasps, “They have another place? Shepard, have you heard of Ascension?” She asks, worriedly.

Luna looks at her, “Ascension, is an Alliance program. It’s a school for biotics. I don’t think whatever they did here,” she gestures the room, “They are doing over there.” She said crossing her arms.

“This is just…why does everything have to be so fucking screwed up?! This isn’t how…things happened…I think…” She whispers.

Luna touches her shoulder, “Sometimes memories will come and go. I don’t remember everything that happened to me when I was a slave on that damn Batarian ship.” She leans back, “but it's okay, at least you are learning now.” She said softly.

Jack stares at her and took in a deep breath, “Your damn mother is in my head, I could hear her tell me to mediate and shit.” She laughs.

Luna laughs along with her, “Trust me, I know.” Luna stops laughing, “Why don’t you go on ahead I need to collect some data here. Maybe find something about Cerberus while I am at it.” She said turning back to the console.

Jack looks conflicted, wondering rather she should go or not. Maybe, because she didn’t want to go alone.

“I’m right behind you,” Zaeed said, making his presents known. Jack looks at him for a moment wanting to be a bitch, but nods. It was nice to have him there.

It wasn’t long before they made it to Jack’s room, but there was someone there.

“Who the fuck are you?” Jack grumbles, crossing her arms.

The guy just stood there in a daze, “This is it. This is my true resting place,” he whispers. Looking down, he smiles while closing his eyes saying a prayer.

Jack looks over at Zaeed giving him a confused look. He shrugs taking out his shotgun, but she held her arms in front of him.

“I have been so empty ever since this place. The pain, the torture. All I ever wanted was freedom, and I was able to live it; but it didn’t matter, because this place has already claimed my soul. I could never truly be free. Doesn’t matter if I have a loving husband or a beautiful daughter. I will always be trapped here.” He whispers tears running down his face.

Jack swallows, feeling uneasy. Wanting to run away and leave, but she couldn’t, he was right, she was trapped here too.

He turns around and looks at Jack, “You are trapped here as well, huh? Wishing to finally be free from this place? I know who you are Jack, the one they wanted to be all-powerful while they ran tests on us to make sure it happens. They wanted to learn so much…the things they did to us to achieve it all.” He glares.

She glares back, “You think I give a fuck?! This is my old cell now get the fuck out! Because I am going to blow this facility sky high.” She said, feeling venerable.

He pulls out a gun and starts to pace, “Because of you, Kyle died! Because of you, I lost someone I loved. All for what? Nothing! This place…will never leave my nightmares! Will never leave me!” He turns to Jack, “For that, I say…goodbye…I am finally free.” And he shot himself.

Jack stares in shock after what she just witness. Zaeed wasn’t fazed by it as he has seen this kind of thing before countless times and has now grown used to it.

Jack starts breathing heavily in a fit of anger watching this…this coward! She starts to pace back and forth as she begins losing her mind. Zaeed reaches out to talk to her, but she uses her powers on him and flung him into a wall.

“He doesn’t get to do that! He doesn’t get to just, leave! He’s a coward!” She screams as tears fell from her eyes, “I had it worse! I had to suffer, begging for the pain to stop! This coward didn’t have to suffer shit!” She wanted to forget, wanted to…to…

Luna rushes inside her eyes wide, “What’s going on?!” She yells out before noticing the dead body of a man on the floor.

“This doesn’t concern you, Shepard!” She yells as a wave of red/blue energy hits Luna and forces her outside.

Luna hits her head, groaning at the pain as she tries to understand what the hell just happened.

Jack turns towards Zaeed, her eyes didn’t turn black, but there was a hint of it darkening. The floor under here lifts in the air as she set out to kill this man.

Zaeed coughs up some blood, “I knew…this place would be traumatizing for you.” He coughs out.

“Fuck you! You have no right to say shit to me after what you have done! You abandoned me!” She screams as the broken bed in the room went to hit him, but instead broke completely against the wall.

“You call yourself my fucking father, yet you did fucking shit to save me! I suffered because you couldn’t even fucking try! You must have been pretty happy knowing I was off your fucking hands!”

Zaeed glares, “That’s not true! I did search for you!” He screams.

“Then where were you!? Where were you when I hid like a little fucking girl under my desk begging for ‘daddy’ to save me!?”

He looks down swallowing.

“Where were you when they strapped me to the bed and injected me with drugs, torturing me!?”

“Jennifer I-”

“Shut. The. Fuck. Up! My name isn’t Jennifer anymore! Jennifer died with her mother!” She screams. “Do you even know what’s it like to pound and yell against the window, hoping someone would hear me?!” She screaming pacing back and forth.

Zaeed glares at the floor angry at himself, just wishing to go back in time.

“Nothing…nothing worked. I was trapped in this living hell wondering if my ‘father’ would save me.” She gasps, holding her head as she falls back into the nightmare of this place.

When he looks up she was right in his face, her eyes were black as the abyss. He felt so much guilt knowing what they did.

“You’re right…” he said looking her in the eyes as she cries, “I wasn’t there…I chose Vido over you, wanting revenge over saving my own goddamn daughter.” He said, angry at himself, “You were right about me not wanting to come here. I didn’t want to confront what they did to you here, what I let happen here…Jenni…Jack, I am sorry.”

Jack stares at him before backing away from him trembling hearing the words of Dr.Shepard.

_“When you feel angry inhale with your nose, exhale with your mouth. Anger is part of all life and shouldn’t be held in, just accept the anger for what it is and finally let it go.”_

Inhaling Jack closes her eyes before finally exhaling and opening them up going back to normal. Everything fell to the ground and Zaeed drops on his ass, groaning. Walking over to him, she sniffs and wipes her face before giving him her hand to help pick him up.

As Jack plants the bomb, with the help of Zaeed, she felt a ting of happiness working with him as they hooked up the wires. Not saying a word to each other they made their way to Luna who was holding her head.

“I checked the files on ‘Red-X’, sadly, I don’t know how much is in your system,” Luna said, crossing her arms.

Jack nods and pulls out the trigger for the bomb, “I planted the bomb, and I’m ready to…” She looks at Zaeed who was calmly leaning on the wall, “Ready to let go. Have that, closure shit, your mom loves to talk about with me.” She mumbles, walking ahead of him.

Luna turns to Zaeed who looks at her for a moment before following Jack.

On the shuttle, they were all quiet as Jack fumbled with the trigger muttering under her breath about something.

“You’re not there anymore Jenn…Jack, and they can’t do anything to you.” Zaeed starts looking between her and the trigger, “I just hope you could forgive me one day.” He whispers.

She looks at him, “I can’t forgive you today, but...” she looks at him sadly, “I would like to try…mom would have wanted that.” She whispers, before hitting the button and the place blew up.

“Joesy was a headstrong woman who knew how to kick anyone’s ass if they got outta line.” Zaeed leans back, feeling at peace for once in his life, “She would kick me out if I went too far. One time she told me to change your diaper, told her it’s a woman’s job and I wouldn’t know how to change a diaper to save my goddamn life.” Zaeed chuckles at the memories.

Jack smiles at him, “Shit, tell me she didn’t just let you off the hook?” She said grinning.

He laughs, “No, used her biotics on me to force me into changing your diaper. Then you pissed in my face and giggled as she laughs at me.” They both laugh at the story and Luna smiles.

_“Maybe it’s time for me to get closure as well.”_

***

Luna was meditating again, it’s been two days after Jack’s personal mission and it’s been quiet. Garrus is now ignoring her now, sometimes making excuses to not be near her, even when she tries to talk to him; she doesn't blame him.

As she meditates the memories of Kaidan, good and bad, played like a movie in her mind. She couldn’t escape them, so instead of trying to shove them away, she just accepted them for what they are, memories of Kaidan, good and bad.

After thirty minutes of her daily meditation, she stood up and took out her Omni-tool. With the help of the Shadow Broker and her credits, she was able to get Kaidan’s contacts.

Inhaling and exhaling as her mother taught her, she calls him.

“ _Hello?_ ” She heard on the other line.

 _“His voice is still the same, I’ve missed his voice.”_ She thought.

“Hey, Kaidan.”

“ _Shepard?_ ” He asks, no fear in his voice just confusion and curiosity.

She took a deep breath, “Think we could meet each other? I want to talk in person if you don’t mind.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Every time I write Laena, I keep thinking of my past professor after taking a body, and mind connection class. Not an expert at it, but I really liked the lessons I learned from that class. (although, I don't practice meditation often, still learning!)


	24. My Stress Is Toxic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luna feels bitter with the way things are with Garrus, and the mission just got more...complicated.

Luna was sitting down in the shuttle heading toward the Eclipse base her contact spoke to her about. Crossing her arms, she thought back to the conversation with Kaidan, and how it ended.

_“Can this be another time? I’m doing something at the moment.”_

Rejected

She was rejected, and he even lied about it. Why did he have to lie about wanting to see her? Maybe, because he didn’t want some psycho bitch to stalk and kill him.

Luna bit back her tears

_“Can this be another time? I’m doing something at the moment.”_

What could he possibly be doing 'at the moment'? Why couldn’t he just…give her the closure that she desperately needs to finally move on!

_“No one can give you this closure, but you.”_

Her mother’s words whisper in her mind, and it made her sigh. She looks over at her teammates, Jacob was listening to some music while Garrus was sitting next to her looking at his Omni-tool.

After a bit of silence, Garrus looks over to her, “What do we know?” he asks. Lately, Garrus has become a lot colder to her, and she knows she deserves it. Sometimes hearing him speak to her in this way broke her inside.

She sighs, “The only thing we know is that Maelon has been working with the Eclipse on a project that requires a large amount of shipping. What are they shipping for Maelon, I don’t know.”

“Do you think we’re too late and they are shipping the cure?” Garrus asks still looking at his Omni-tool, not really paying her attention.

“No, I think we’re fine. I talked to my mother and Dr.Mordin before this, and they said a cure for the Genophage would take a while. We are on a tight schedule because of our healing time though,” she frowns, “So…maybe?” She groans.

Garrus leans back and sighs, “Great, of course, time would be a problem,” he grumbles.

“What about the other the Spectres?” Luna asks.

He side-eyed her, “I was looking into their data, and right now there are a few others, including myself, who are required to finish this mission. There seem to be some issues involving missing people and multiple crises around the galaxy.” He said, leaning back and crossing his arms.

She rolls her eyes, “Of course, there are multiple crises around the galaxy during this time.” She grumbles in annoyance.

He shrugs, “Well since we dealt with Maelon on Tuchanka, the Council became less worried believing the issue is handled.” Garrus said.

She narrows her eyes, “Are you shitting me right now? Why?” She asks annoyed.

He sighs, “Because, they are Politicians and would want to believe they are safe and sound without any problems.” He looks away from her, sighing.

“See this is why I am an agent of the Shadow Broker, he takes information seriously and would do something with it,” She said.

Garrus rolls his eyes, “Yes, and this information would only benefit him since he controls how it would be distributed.” He said, coldly.

She glares at him, “Are you serious right now? Are you really trying to make it out like the Council is better than the Shadow Broker when it comes to information,” she laughs, angrily.

He glares back at her, “All I am saying is, he’s not innocent, pretty sure he wouldn’t lift a finger if he could without getting paid.” Garrus said.

She groans in annoyance, “Fine, whatever, you’re right, he wouldn’t do shit for anyone unless it benefits him.” She begrudgingly agrees.

He shook his head, “No reason to be so unreasonable, Shepard. All I am doing is stating a fact that your boss-”

“Don’t fucking call him my boss!” She yells, cutting him off and Jacob looks at her taken aback from her reaction, while Garrus shuts up and stares at her black eyes; he could feel the burning of his body.

He puts his hands up, “Don’t…” he starts in fears as he shakes under her gaze; he feels as if his body is on fire, just like that day.

She looks at him and noticing his body language, “Anything else you know?” She asks, looking away in guilt, hugging her body.

Garrus swallow taking deep breathes, “There was some data I found. It’s not about Maelon and the cure, but it’s something that’s concerning the Council,” he hesitantly shows her his Omni-tool, “There have been a few Geth sightings. This is one of those ‘multiple crises’ I was talking about.” He said.

She looks at the data in shock, “The Geth, again? Looks like they are becoming more of a problem. Hopefully, The Eclipse wouldn’t be so hard to deal with.”

Landing on Helyme was a bit of a rocky start as the weather of the planet was not the best, since it’s full of smoke and high winds. Once the shuttle was on the ground, Luna calls out to Kenn.

“We’ll make sure to com you once we're done here!” She screams through the wind.

Kenn nods, “No problem, Commander! Stay safe!” He yells back and flew off as make their way to the mine.

Staying close together they walk past large boulders and broken structures. Luna uses her sniper to scope the area.

“It’s annoying we couldn’t use the Mako,” She groans and Garrus chuckles.

“What, so you can crash us into the large rocks here?” He asks sarcastically and she glares at him.

“I have you know my driving skills are amazing!” She shouts playfully when the wind picks up forcing her to swerve to the side. She gasps grabbing onto Garrus for support and feels her face heat up as he held her.

“Don’t worry, I got you.” He whispers in her ear.

Jacob dodges debris flying quickly towards him, his eyes went wide as another came his way and he had to drop to the ground.

Luna turns to him, “You okay over there, Jacob?” She yells.

He stands up and dusks himself off, “Yeah! Uh…that was a bit terrifying.” He laughs, nervously.

They made their way through the tight corners making sure to dodge the debris coming their way. It wasn’t until Luna heard a familiar sound that made her groan in annoyance, Kilxen.

Turning around she aims her sniper and shot one in its face causing it to explode. When she saw more coming she gasps, and runs to cover dodging their melee attack.

“Jacob watch out, for their explosion and hit them from afar with your biotics!” She commanded, and Jacob nods using his throw to push a Kilxen away from him.

Pulling on his armor pen mod he shot at the Kilxen causing it to explode onto another Kilxen.

Garrus orders Urz away from the exploding enemies and to defend. Taking out his sniper be concentrates on shooting each of the Kilxen that was coming for them.

Jacob uses pull on another Kilxen causing it to slowly float towards him, when he was going to use push he felt a painful headache which causes him to fall to the ground gasping in pain.

“Jacob!” Garrus yells, before rushing towards him and shooting the now fallen Kilxen on the ground, killing it.

Placing his hand on Jacob’s shoulder he helps him up.

“Shit, thanks Garrus, getting used to the new implants,” Jacob said, groaning before shaking his head.

Luna shot and kill another Kilxen. She then notices that they were retreating. Taking a breath she walks over to Jacob and Garrus.

“Everything alright?” She said, putting away her sniper.

Garrus nods, “Jacob is getting used to new implants.” he said.

Luna look at Jacob weird, “You got a new implant?” She asks.

He scratches his neck, “Yeah, it’s why I ask to join you on this mission. I ordered one before we left Noveria. Don’t worry I ran it by your mother and Dr.Chakwas, who gave the okay and were the ones to give me the surgery.” He said.

“Well, shit Jacob. I should have been told this.” She sighs, looking around the now calm area, “Are you sure you’ll be able to keep going?” She asks in concern.

He nods, “Don’t worry Shepard, I won’t be a burden. Just need to get used to it. Sorry, I didn’t tell you, I thought I could handle it.” He apologizes.

She nods and they head out towards the mining facility seeing a platform that has a shuttle there. They start to watch as the shuttle opens up and saw multiple docile Krogans chained, making their way into the mine, Eclipse soldiers leading them inside.

One of the Krogans start begging them to let her go, fighting to get away, it seems whatever drug she was given, it weakened her. The Krogan than gets hit in her face causing her to fall to the ground gasping. The other Krogans stared, either not knowing what to do, or just didn’t care to help her, she then ends up getting shot in the leg.

“Get up!” The Eclipse merc said as a YMIR mech walks towards the whimpering Krogan. She stands up shakily and limps into the mine.

Luna growls, “Slaves, I didn’t know Eclipse were dealing with slaves.” She said, angrily.

“Are they just making them mine for something or maybe something else?” Garrus asks, wondering out loud. Jacob watches and counted the number of slave Krogans walking inside.

“I count about forty-five, Krogan slaves.” He looks at Luna, “What do we do now?” He asks.

She stands up, watching as the shuttle flies off.

“Stay quiet and follow behind them. We don’t want to alert anyone. I need to get to my contact Jolina.” She said, and heads toward the entrance of the mine.

Quietly they follow the walking salves and Eclipse members. When they got inside they saw a few bugs on the ground. Luna shivers at them and Garrus notices, when she looks towards him, she glares as his mandible twitches in amusement.

“Shut up,” She said at the sounds he was making and he chuckles.

As they continue to walk deeper inside, they realize a couple of Eclipse merc talking to each other.

“I can’t believe that piece of shit is a traitor.” The Salarian mercenary said.

The Asari merc grunts, “Well, doesn’t matter we took care of her.” She said.

“Still, you’d think Jolina was smart enough.” He said shaking his head.

“I just wonder whoever she called Commander is actually coming here.” She grumbles.

“Hey, you ever wonder why we need to have Krogans here.” He asks curiously.

She shrugs, “Hell if I know, all I know is after we do this, we’ll be heavily compensated.” She chuckles.

Luna glares when she hears Jolina is a traitor, most likely they killed her or worse, they are torturing her for information, information that Luna doesn’t want out.

“Heavily compensated? Looks like they are going to be paid for getting the Krogans here. I wonder if it’s for all Eclipse members or just the people here.” Garrus whispers.

Luna shook her head, “I think they are working by themselves. It was Jolina who told me things have shifted here. Eclipse are not people who take slaves, Blue Suns are.” Luna growls, looking back at the mercs.

“It’s not common, but if there is money involved the Eclipse would do it, Shepard,” Jacob said, looking at her, before turning back towards the mercs.

Luna sighs, “Well, looks like we need to rescue the slaves here then. Other than that, it seems they are working with Maelon on the Genophage for some ‘compensation’, and they got Jolina.” She said.

“I say we find out more information by asking them some questions,” Garrus said, “preferably by force,” He said, looking at the mercs.

He’s always hated the Eclipse, along with Blood Pack, and Blue Suns. Even though he has accepted his crew's death, he still holds hatred for these groups for what they did.

Jacob nods, “I agree, how are we going to capture them?” He asks.

Luna uses her tactical cloak and walks over to them, pulls her fist back, and punches the head of one of the mercs. Before the other could react she grabs his head and shocks him with her overload. The Salarian shutters and drops to the ground. Before the Asari scream for help, Luna shocks her as well causing her to drop.

“Well, we could just do that,” Jacob said impressed.

Luna shrugs, “Just thought it would be easier to do it that way. Why don’t you guys pull them to an area, so we could interrogate.” She said and they did as she instructed.

When the Asari and Salarian woke up they saw Luna smiling down at them. The Asari instantly knew who she was and begins to panic.

“I…I know you!” She gasps and Luna punches her in the face.

“Only talk when I ask you a question,” Luna commands.

The Salarian glares, “Hey, leave her alone!” he shouts, hoping to get some attention away from the Asari.

Luna rolls her eyes, “Tell me right now where the hell is Jolina?” She asks, menacingly.

The Salarian glares at her, “I won’t tell you anything!” he shouts again.

Luna sighs and grabs her sword pointing at the Asari’s throat. The Asari gasps looking in panic as she squirms in fear.

“Tell me, where the hell is Jolina.” She growls, but the Salarian glares at her.

“She’s being questioned!” The Asari shouts in fear for her life.

The Salarian glares at her, “Why the hell would you tell her that!?” He yells, struggling to get out of his restrains.

The Asari glares at him, “I’m not going to fucking give my life for this bullshit!”

“Are you serious?! How could you, Atha?! You're a Traitor!” He growls.

Luna rolls her eyes, “Looks like someone is smart,” she looks at the Asari, “Where is she?” She asks.

“She’s up ahead, they plan on getting information out of her before they kill her.” She said, looking at Luna.

“What are they doing with the Genophage cure?” She asks.

Atha bit her lips, “What? I…I don’t know what you are talking about.” She stutters.

Luna glares digging into her skin with her sword, “Don't you lie to me!” she growls.

She shook her head, “I'm being honest! I can't tell you anything about the Genopage cure. I didn’t even know there was a Genophage cure. We were just told we are going to get a lot of credits!” She shouts in fear as Luna leans her sword deeper against her neck causing some of her blood to spill.

Luna stares at her, “Tell me about the slaves, right now.” She said, darkly and Atha shivers in fright.

“The slaves….” She swallows, “Giffon and I are just lookouts, we haven’t been told anything! I swear.” She finishes.

“Do you know anything about a Salarian named Maelon Heplorn?” She asks annoyed.

Atha shook her head, “No, if he’s a criminal he’s not here anymore, most likely smuggled off-world. It's what we do. I don’t know what ship he went on since only our superiors are the ones in charge of where the shipment comes from and where they go.” She said.

Luna sighs and took her sword pointing it at Giffon, “Is there more I need to know?” She glares.

He didn’t say anything just glare at Atha in disappointment and anger that she would tell this person everything.

Garrus narrows his eyes, “I suggest you tell her what she wants unless you want to die.” He simply said.

“I’m going to die anyway. At least I will die knowing I wasn’t weak enough to tell you our secrets.” He grumbles, looking at Atha, who starts to panic.

“Wait, you’re still going to kill us? Please don’t! I promise we’re just trying to get by! It’s something we need to do to survive in this galaxy. You know what it is like, Shepard. Living on Omega was hell and when we got the opportunity to finally get off that rock and live, we took it!” She shouts, shaking in fear.

Luna laughs, darkly, “You think, I give a shit? Today hasn't been the greatest, and sadly, you are a merc, in the wrong place at the wrong time.” She said with an intent to kill. Grabbing Atha by the head, her eyes go black.

Atha shakes, “Please! Please, Shepard!” She cries and whimpers.

Luna continues to stare at her, and Atha tries to close her eyes, but something forces her to stare back her eyes wide, and her body going still. Atha suddenly felt like she was on fire and begins to scream in pain until her eyes melted out of her eye sockets.

Garrus looks away taking a deep breath trying to calm his mind from his trauma, trying to think of anything that isn’t a very thin Luna. Jacob’s face was full of shock, unable to comprehend what the hell just happened.

Giffon felt fear ran through his body as he watches his, now dead partner, slump down in her place. Luna stares at the body before looking at the Salarian.

“They say, when you look into the abyss, the abyss looks back.” She squats down and stares up at him, “Tell me, what do you see?” She asks, their eyes met, and he couldn’t look away.

He starts to shake in fear, his heart begins to beat faster and faster, he was scared, he was afraid, and he knew he was going to die. He starts to coughs up blood and his body begins to violently shake before he stops, dead.

Jacob swallows, “What did you do?” He asks, quietly.

Luna turns to him, her eyes back to normal, “I made him stare into the abyss, and burned him from the inside.” She said, coldly.

Garrus turns around and saw the dead bodies, he didn’t feel a thing; mercs were mercs. But, when he saw her eyes looking at him, he swallows and looks away cursing himself for feeling this fear, but he couldn’t help it. Seeing her eyes kept reminding him of almost dying and burning alive, spirits he was a coward.

When Luna saw Garrus looking away from her, she felt guilty for what she had done. It wasn't as if she didn't already know the outcome; just like Kaidan, he’s going to be scared of her. Just like Kaidan, he wouldn't be able to look at her. She wants to be understanding of his feelings, but it hurts. Doesn’t help that when she wanted her closure from Kaidan, he denied it.

Luna didn't want to make an excuse for herself though, she knew she killed them out of anger. Kaidan's rejection, the entire situation with Garrus, and her inability to accept the darkness, and change, within her. No, today has been shit, and she took it out on some mercs. 

“That bad of a day, huh?” Jacob asks and she smiles sadly.

“Yeah, lately everything feels so...exhausting,” She said to Jacob, still looking at Garrus.

“Are you hurting? From using your powers.” He asks quietly, still not looking at her, but concern for her wellbeing.

She shook her head, “No, I feel fine. Meditation and all.” She laughs, weakly and sadly as he nods. They both awkwardly stood there, hoping and wondering who’s going to make the first move.

Jacob picks up a communicator from one of the dead mercs and once he tunes it correctly, he gave the communicator to Luna to listen to.

_“Make sure the bodies are ready for shipment. I repeat, make sure the bodies are ready for shipment.”_

Luna frowns at the message, “Do you think they killed them or something? Because that sounded pretty ominous.” She said, looking at the two men.

Garrus shook his head, “Either way, we need to find out where ‘the bodies’ are. Put a stop to their operation.” He said and Luna nods.

Moving on from the dead bodies they made their way through the mining area into an area full of iron like walls. Jacob notices an Eclipse vanguard patrolling the area, not looking particularly happy about being there.

He turns to Luna and gave her the heads up and she nods, noticing more Eclipse personals in the vicinity.

Taking out her sniper she aims at the vanguard and studies his portal route, noting a place to kill him without alerting anyone.

She took a deep breath and shot

Luna turns to Garrus and nods at him, giving him the okay to kill the other Eclipse mercs ahead. With Urz, Garrus ran ahead with his assault rifle and begin to shoot.

“Intruders!” One yells.

Jacob uses his biotics to get control of one of the sections in the area, while Luna uses her tactical cloak to get into a position of more targets, a smile appears on her face when she begins to snipe at the enemies as they tried to get to Garrus and Urz or Jacob.

Luna aims to snipe at one of the mercs, but saw Jolina, dead, and sitting there with her eyes wide open, clearly tortured to death.

“Shit,” she whispers, sadly.

Once the fighting was over an alarm was heard and the three of them stood still looking around. Urz became tense and starts to growl. 

“Crap,” Garrus said, and Luna groans, before running off.

They follow her, rushing through the mine trying to find the main center of this place. As they rushed ahead they were shooting any Eclipse in the way. A vanguard suddenly appears in from of Luna, and begin to charge at her. Luna shot at his barrier, but it wasn’t enough to get him down, before the charge connected to her, Jacob uses throw causing the vanguard to fly off.

She turns and grins at him, “Thanks!” she yells out and he nods at her.

They continue their run to the main area, and once inside they stop to look around noticing the Eclipse merc racing to get on their shuttle.

“EDI, any shuttle that isn’t ours make sure to shoot it down!” Luna yells.

“Yes, Commander,” EDI said.

“Shepard, look,” Garrus said.

She took the time to look around to what Garrus was indicating at and finally noticing the Krogans that were inside tubes of liquid.

“What are they doing to them?” Jacob asks.

Luna walks ahead taking out her Omni-tool to record everything to send to the Shadow Broker. It wasn’t until she got to a console that she begins to type, trying to gather as much data as possible.

“Another instance of someone trying to delete data, damn it. EDI going to need your help here.” She said and EDI begins to record the data from the console.

“Shepard, it looks as if the experimentations are…mutating their bodies.” EDI states.

Luna shook her head as she kept typing, “No, that can’t be right, Maelon wants to cure the Genophage, not mutate their bodies. Unless you mean change their cells into working cells that do not have the Genophage?” she asks in disbelief.

“No, the data specifies it's mutating their bodies into an unknown. It seems Maelon’s experiments for the cure backfired, which is causing the body of the Krogan’s to change into something else…worse.” EDI said almost in wonder.

Luna stops typing and bit her finger, “What the hell was he doing while Garrus and I were recovering?” She whispers under her breath.

Garrus crosses his arms, “No time to dwell on it. We have a problem.” He said in a hurry, pointing at the big timer on a screen in the main area they are in.

Luna’s eyes went wide, “Shit! They plan on blowing it up!? But what about the Krogans?!” She yells.

“Commander, you do not have the time to save these Krogans, I advise you to leave.”

“EDI, we are not going to leave innocent Krogans to their death!” She screams as she stares at the sleeping Krogans in the tubes.

“Because of the changes within their systems, there is nothing you could do about these Krogans, Shepard, it is irreversible. Also, I advise not to open the tubes, there are too many unknown factors we don't know could happen."

"Like what?" Luna asks, still looking at the Krogans in the tubes.

"I looked more into the data as we spoke and there have been reports of these, changed Krogans, becoming very dangerous and large creatures, called 'brutes',” EDI said, nonchalantly.

Luna groans, thinking of her choices as the time continues to tick down. On one hand, she wants to save these people, but on another, EDI is right, judging from the data she was able to read, the Krogans here are changed, and it was irreversible. Doesn't help that if they were to at least try, there could be casualties among her team.

“We got the data, let’s head out,” She said sadly, “Kenn are you ready to pick us up?”

“Wait, we’re really leaving them?” Jacob ask.

 _“Yes, Commander, I am ready to pick up,”_ Kenn calls out.

Luna looks at Jacob and sighs, “Yes, we’re too late to save these Krogans, it seems Maelon has change course in what he believes in. EDI, make sure Dr.Mordin gets the data, he needs to look it over.” She said.

“Yes, Commander.”

***

Luna sighs, after talking to the Shadow Broker about the information about the Eclipse and Maelon.

She stares at the empty QEC questioning why the Eclipse is working with Maelon for a Genophage cure. Why is the ‘cure’ mutating the Krogans? What the hell is Maelon doing?

After playing with her hair, she leaves the QEC in search of Garrus to speak to him about the mission. Passing by the people, who said their hellos, she made her way to the elevator in deep thought not paying attention when she hits the button, for engineering by mistake, instead of deck 3 where Garrus is.

She longs for his touch but knew it was impossible in the current circumstances. He was too afraid of her, and she felt bitter at it all, wishing that she could go back in time where purgatory didn’t happen. Where Torfan didn’t happen. Where fucking Mindoir didn’t happen!

This bitterness was swallowing her whole, but she couldn’t help it. Kaidan…why couldn’t he just say yes and meet her? Why couldn’t Garrus just not be scared of her? Why couldn’t they understand this power is not something she had a choice in! It was unfair!

Buy...why was she being selfish of Garrus' feelings? Why does she have to snap at him for having a natural response to what happened to him? Why can’t she control this power within her!? Why can’t she just love herself!?

Walking out of the elevator, she looks around confused, realizing which floor she has chosen. With a curse and groan, she turns around to call the elevator. When she heard soft crying coming from downstairs.

Making her way slowly downstairs, she saw Jack sitting on her cot crying softly and looking at the photo from Zaeed’s room. It wasn’t loud enough for others to hear, but with her hearing, Luna was able to catch it.

She didn’t want to interrupt, but, maybe Jack needed someone right now?

“Mom,” She whispers.

Luna bit her lips and coughs, “Hey, Jack.” She said, and Jack turns to her, red in the face shocked. Standing up from her cot, she puts the photo facedown and turns away looking at the corner making sure not to show her face to Luna.

“Shepard, what the fuck?! Why are you here?” She growls, glaring at the wall as more tears fall from her eyes.

Luna slowly walks towards her, “I heard you crying,” she said.

“I wasn’t fucking crying, okay. Was trying to get something out my damn eye, which by the way, won’t come out!” She grumbles, clutching her hands into a fist still not looking at Luna.

When Luna touches her shoulder, Jack spins around angrily as tears continue to rush down her eyes. Suddenly, Jack saw Luna was also in tears.

“Why the fuck are you crying?!” She yells, feeling the burning in her throat.

“Because I know why you are crying.” Luna whispers, “It’s hard to not cry sometimes. I’ve always hated being overly emotional, but, I’m learning to accept that part of me.” She said.

Jack rolls her eyes, “Yeah, so fucking what!? You cry, big deal! Doesn’t make sense why the fuck you are crying with me!” She shouts.

“I heard you call for your mother,” Luna whispers, squeezing her shoulder, she realizes Jack hasn’t pushed her away.

Jack gasps, hearing her say that and tries to find a way to escape. Looking around she couldn’t find a good area to run, plus she knew Luna’s ship AI, EDI, would just tell her where the fuck she went.

Jack, realizing she has to confront the reality, sighs, and looks down.

“I know what it like is to lose a parent, Jack. I lost my father, and I think about him all the time.” Luna said softly, her tears drying on her face.

Jack shook her head, “You…I…fuck, Shepard. Fucking hate getting like this!” She sits down and covers her face, “I prefer to just…blow something up, or beat the shit outta someone!” She looks up at Luna, “But, I can’t…not on the ship.” She whimpers, playing with her ponytail.

Luna sat next to her, “I know what you mean. I know this sounds crazy, but sometimes I like to think of blowing up my ship,” She sighs, “There was a time I wanted to punch Joker out and drive the ship into the sun with everyone in it,” She said.

Jack chuckles, “Shit, Shepard, and I thought I was the only crazy one.” She said.

Luna chuckles and shrugs, “Yeah, if it wasn’t for my mother, I might have killed myself and others by now.” She simply states not looking at Jack.

“Mother, huh?” Jack whispers.

Luna looks at the ground, “Yeah, sometimes she could be so…damn calm and I hate it; but I love it. The perfect balance that I need to see, so I could mimic.” She closes her eyes thinking of her mother's words.

Jack crosses her arms, “All that meditation shit, she loves to talk about? Fuck, she loves talking about mindfulness and other shit I could give a rats ass about.” She said.

Luna chuckles and leans back, “Enough about my mom, do you remember anything about your mom?” She asks smiling.

“What don’t like me talking shit about your mom, Shepard?” Jack asks.

Luna shook her head, “I don’t see it as you ‘talking shit’ about my mother. You are correct about her teaching of meditation and mindfulness.” She looks at Jack, “I just want to know about your mom since you know so much about mines.” She said.

Jack looks at her and sighs, “My mom…my mom was funny. Shit, the things she would say! The shit she would do!” She laughs, “There was a time my mom farted next to Zaeed! She did it in such a normal way like she didn’t care what anyone thought. I was…I think…three at the time eating my cereal.” She laughs.

“Zaeed wasn’t amused, huh?” Luna asks, laughing.

Jack smiles, “He laughed, said something about her ass. She said something back to him and they started to get into a ‘who's the better parent’ thing. I was too busy laughing at the farting.” She said, laughing at the memory.

Luna laughs with her, “I remember this time when my father and his friend David, having trouble making this playground for me when I was…I think four. My dad ended up slipping on something and landing on his ass. When he stood up, there was brown mud on his pants, I couldn’t help but laugh. It’s not even that funny, but…it was.” She whispers, smiling.

They begin to share other stories they remember about their deceased parents, when Luna brought up about how her father died, and the cannibalism, Jack wondered how old she was when she was taken and how long they lived as slaves.

“How old were you when you were taken?” Jack asks.

“Six, and I was a slave until I was twelve.” She looks at Jack, “You?” she asks.

Jack brings her legs up to her chin, “Five,” she said.

There was a moment of silence and Luna was thinking about what else to talk about.

“He’s trying by the way,” Jack starts, “Zaeed.” She finishes.

Luna chuckles, “Never thought Zaeed would be a father.” She said bitting the skin around her nails.

Jack side-eyes her, “Aren’t you the Shadow Brokers agent?” She asks.

Luna rolls her eyes, “I swear even Garrus likes to point that out when I don’t know something!” She whines, “Yes, I am the Shadow Broker’s agent! Doesn’t mean I know everything; that is the job of the Shadow Broker. The information I know is the information I collect on my jobs.” She looks forward, “Zaeed was always private about his life, and the Shadow Broker never asked me for his information.” She said.

Jack nods, “Alright, alright I get it, I get it.” She said laughing a little while having her hands up.

As they were sitting there talking a little bit more about Zaeed, Archangel jumps from his cat tunnel and lands on Luna’s lap.

“Hey there my Angel,” she whispers, scratching under his head causing him to purr. Jack stares and smiles softly at the cat.

“He likes to come here when I am sad, it’s like the damn cat knows.” She said, laughing before showing him her hand; he meows and rubs against it with his head.

Luna giggled, “Yeah, he’s been there for me for a long time now, four years actually.” She said.

“Shit, he definitely knows a broken person then,” She laughs, enjoying the rubbing from Archangel, “prefer varren though, I could roughhouse with them. The other day I played with Urz, and that…was amazing. He’s amazing,” Jack grins.

Luna grins, “Urz is very welcomed. At first, I was worried he would kill Angel, but he hasn’t done anything.” She said, shrugging.

“Or Angel is a smart cat that knows where he should and shouldn’t be.” Jack states and Luna grins.

“I agree,” she said while placing a kiss on the now sleeping Archangel.

Jack starts to play with her hand, “Shit…” she whispers and Luna could tell she was nervous.

Luna smiles, “Hey, whatever is said here I won’t say anything.” She said, placing her hand on Jack’s shoulder trying to reassure her.

Jack shook her head, “No, just…alright, look Shepard, I was thinking that maybe we could,” she took in a breath, “Train together…sometime.” She finally said.

Luna looks at her oddly, “Train together? I mean sure, I think hand to hand combat is important,” she grins, “Just know, I won’t hold back and you shouldn’t either. I think my biotics is getting somewhat better, and with you here I could really work at it.” She said.

Jack chuckles, “That sounds great, and fuck yes, I would love to train my biotics with you, Shepard, but um…,” she coughs, “That’s not what I mean by training together,” she sighs and looks at Luna, “I was thinking we could meditate together sometime?” She nervously said, letting go of the breath she was holding.

Luna’s mouth was shaped like an O, as she stares at Jack. Mediating has been nice ever since she did it with her mother. Restarting mediation has helped so much with her powers, allowing her to use them without feeling so much pain. It’s not perfect, she still suffers sometimes by using too much of her biotics, but it’s getting better.

Jack plays with a string on her pants, “Feeling exposed here, Shepard, come on answer me already.” She sighs, “Your mom has been telling me to mediate and shit. I don’t do it often, but she told me it helps with the burning,” She said.

Luna nods, “It does, but it’s not only because of the meditation. It’s mainly because your body isn’t rejecting the enhance biotics and is creating chemicals to balance the system.” She said.

Jack shrugs, “Yeah, well, I need help with the chemicals and shit. Doing it with your mother is nice, but having a friend with me would…be better.” She said, looking away as her face starts to feel hot.

Luna nods, smiling, “Of course, we could meditate together, Jack.” She pauses then grins, “Wait, did you just say I’m a friend!?” She said, happily clapping.

“Don’t let it get to your head!” She snaps, glaring at Luna.

Luna giggled, “Oh, this is defiantly getting to my head,” Luna squeals, and Jack grunts rolling her eyes.

“Why can’t you just take the fact, I called you a friend and not act like this?” Jack grumbles, but Luna saw her smile.

“Not act like what? That I made a new friend who understands me?” Luna stands up and starts to dance, “Nah, I’m going to enjoy this moment.” She giggles again.

Jack watches the dance and burst out laughing, “What the fuck, are you doing?!” She shouts in shock and amusement.

“This is the dance of the Shepards, my dad invented it!” She said, laughing, “Join me, Jack, you know you want to do the Shepard Shuffle with me!” She said, proudly.

Jack laughs harder holding her sides, “I…hell no! I am not doing it,” she said, whipping tears from her eyes.

“Ugh, like father like daughter, why is it so hard for you and Zaeed to let loose, and enjoy things?” Luna complains, sticking her tongue out at Jack.

Jack rolls her eyes, “Talk for yourself, didn’t you just say your father invented that horrid dance? Look at you now.” Jack said, grinning.

Luna grabs Jack's arms, “Yup and now you dance with me.”

Jack groans until she heard music playing by EDI. They both look at each other before laughing, dancing to the music.

While dancing Jack smiles at Luna, “Hey, Shepard…thanks for being here for me. I needed it.” She said.

Luna grins, “No problem, I needed this, too,” she said. Jack stares at her for a moment, and instantly knew why she said it.

"Zaeed is scared of me too, you know. At first, I was pissed, but, I let him talk." Jack starts, wondering if she's doing the 'being there for a friend', right.

Luna shook her head and smiles, "It's more than just him being scared of me, but let's not talk about that now. Now we dance!" She shouts.

Jack rolls her eyes and laughs as they kept dancing.

***

They landed on planet Neith after EDI reported one of the ships, which was connected to the mining base, crash-landed after being shot by the Normandy.

Luna looks at the debris and sighs, “Looks like no survivors.” She said.

Tali took out her drone and begin to look around, Garrus orders Urz to see if he spots anything while following the varren.

Luna saw a broken crate and was questioning what came out of it, since the crate had a large gaping hole on its side, seeming to look as if something big and monstrous came out of it.

Taking out her Omni-tool she starts to scan the crate seeing if anything picks up. She notices some blood and narrows her eyes while squatting down to see where it might come from. The blood has a trail that leads somewhere, and she begins to follow it.

“Shepard, I analyzed the blood sample, and it’s one of the changed Krogans.” EDI states.

Luna hums as she continues to track, “Great the 'brutes' you were talking about is here, fuck. In any of the data is there a picture of what 'brutes' look like?” She asks.

“Yes, I was able to find one in the information we found. Sending the picture now.”

Luna stops and looks at her Omni-tool, and gasps in horror at the massive mutated Krogan. It was much bigger, almost doubling the height of Wrex. Its head was smaller, but its arms were massive with one of his hand shape like a claw, while the other was smaller than the other, it was bigger than a normal Krogan.

“You...are fucking kidding me right now?” She gasps.

“The ones we saw within that lab were not fully ‘born’ yet and needed more time to process.”

"Why do this to the Krogan people?”

“Unknown, Shepard, but there is a name that hasn’t been spoken of yet.”

“Who?”

“Her name is Dr.Tunile, but there isn't much about her. Although I did find information about a female Krogan who disappeared from Tuchanka, her name is Oklie Tunile. That could be her, Shepard.” EDI said.

“So, this, Dr.Tunile, is the reason why the cure mutates the Krogans, which causes them to become brutes?” She asks in disbelief.

“Unknown, Shepard, but it is likely. Her motives, along with Maelon’s, are not documented here. The main information taken was that they were using the previous location as storage of some sort, for Krogans who wanted to be experimented on, and some who were forced.”

Luna crosses her arm and thought, “I need to look into Dr.Tunile.” She sighs and looks at the blood on the ground.

As she follows the trail it came to a stop and she looks up to see the thing, the brute, hunched over…eating. She felt fear as it turns around looking at her saliva coming from its mouth as it held an almost dead Salarian in its claw hand, a large chunk from its body missing.

The Salarian wheezes, “H…el..p,” he gets out before succumbing to his wounds and dying.

“Oh…fuck,” she whispers before it began to charge after her.

Garrus looks up when he heard thumping heading their way, Tali looks over to him asking him what’s going on, and he shrugs.

Luna came running, screaming for them to run away. She uses her tactical cloak, but it seems to know where she is as it follows her, well shit!

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” She yells as a shuttle flew towards her and she turns around to see it before sliding and having the shuttle fly over her.

Garrus’ eyes grew wide as the brute was getting ready to punch Luna when she screams causing it to fly backward. Her head starts to pound in pain after using her biotics. Groaning, she stands up, her eyes black, and turns towards the two teammates.

“What the fuck are you both waiting for!? Shoot it!” She screams at them, Garrus shook in fear for a split second before taking out his assault rifle and emptying his clip into it.

Tali yells for her drone to shock it as she takes out her SMG to shoot at it realizing that getting close with the shotgun would be death.

Taking out her sniper, Vixen, Luna starts to take deep breathes remembering her mother’s words, remembering to breathe.

_“Breathe in through the nose, and breathe out through the mouth.”_

The brute came charging at her and she dodges out of the way. She begins to run as fast as she could as Garrus and Tali shot at the beast. She watches him swing and miss into a large rock, turning around, she aims her sniper and shot it three times hitting the head, body, and claw arm.

They did this dance over and over, as Garrus and Tali shot at the damn thing. Sometimes Urz would get its attention away from Luna to give her a time to breathe.

Rinse and repeat the pattern and although it stumbles for a bit, it would get right back up. Luna could feel her body getting tired of running and shooting, plus, she needs to load.

Fuck

It roars in anger before charging at her again, holding its arm in the air. Luna looks to the side and saw a shuttle blocking her way, cursing under her breath, she ran left barely dodging the hit.

Using some of her biotics, she turns around to send a powerful warp at the brute, causing it to fly back. When it starts to move, again, she gasps a little in fear not knowing what else to do. It's like the thing refuses to die, maybe use more of her biotics?

Holding her sword, she starts to channel her biotics into it, hoping to replicate that mysterious Cerberus man from before; but her head pounds harder and she winces in pain.

 _'How was he able to do it with no issues?!'_ She thought, biting her lips when another hard pound from her head hits her; she groans in pain as the brute stood up.

Garrus notices the pain she was in and thought of a different way, a way that could stop her from using her biotics, which was clearly causing her pain, while also using the new upgrades Navi created for him.

“Shepard!” Garrus yells at her, she could see the fear in his eyes when she turns to look at him, her eyes black and her body glowing.

She glares at him, “What the fuck do you want!? Don't you see I need to concentrate!” She yells back, she didn’t mean to be angry just…pissed he was still afraid of her and not the hulking brute preparing to charge at her.

He glares back, “I want to help you. I have an idea, no need to be a bitch to me!” He yells pissed she was acting like this.

Tali looks at the angry brute, “Um guys.” She said.

Luna stops her channeling and stares at him in disbelief, “Did you really just call me a bitch? At least I don’t look at you like you’re a fucking monster!” She screams.

He puts down his assault rifle, “I can’t help it! Did you forget you almost killed me!? What do you expect me to do?! I’m not a robot, Shepard! I’m a living being, it’s traumatizing to almost die!” He screams back.

“Guys!” Tali screams.

“What!?” They said in allusion, and she points at the angry, brute with its arm in the air ready to strike at Luna. Luna’s eyes went wide as the claw was going to hit her. Her flight or fight reflexes wasn’t working as she stares death in the eyes.

_“I’m a living thing, it’s traumatizing to almost die!”_

_‘Garrus,’_ She thought as tears begin to form in her eyes, knowing she’s going to die because she felt too scared to move, too paralyzed, just…like…Garrus.

Garrus uses his jet pack to quickly maneuver on top of the brute’s back holding its neck as best as he could. The brute roars trying to get to Garrus, but Garrus held on.

Focusing on the brute, he yells at Luna, “Shepard! Kill it!” Garrus grunts almost getting flung off.

Snapping out of her paralyzed state, she takes out her sword. Pushing as many biotic powers into the sword as possible, she slashes at the neck of the brute.

It drops to the ground, dead, while Garrus was able to leap away from it as it fell. Luna was breathing hard with her hands and knees on the floor breathing heavily.

Breathing heavily as he watches Luna, and closes his eyes, catching his breath. After a few minutes, he walks over to the dead brute and begins to study it.

“So this is the mutated Krogan? If there are more of them, we're fucked.” He whispers.

Luna heard him and groan, “We…we need to get a sample of its blood and have my mother, along with Dr.Mordin, analyze it. I’ll send someone out here to take the body in for studying.” She said, grunting as she stands up.

“Shepard, I found a datapad with a place we could look into. It said it’s from a Jaroth?” Tali said and Garrus looks at her shock.

“Jaroth? Let me see that datapad, Tali,” He said and she gave it to him, “It’s not that far from here.” He whispers.

Luna dusks off herself as she finishes taking the blood sample from the brute, “Okay, we're done here. I need a very long hot shower and to look into where to go next.” She said, rolling her shoulders.

“There is a location not far from here that should be our next destination, Shepard. It might have some more answers.” Garrus simply said as the shuttle reaches them. He gave Luna the datapad and made his way over to the shuttle, taking a seat.

Luna and Tali walk inside as Urz lays next to Garrus. Looking over the datapad, Luna nods before hitting the shuttle for Kenn to leave.

When they got to the facility that was on the datapad, they quietly took out a few guards before getting inside the facility. As they look around quietly they notice how dark it is as they try to sense anything afoot.

Suddenly, the light turns on and aims at them and a loud voice was heard. They also notice a large number of shipping containers in the area.

“Is that Lunaria Shepard? What the hell are you doing here!?” The voice yells.

Luna shrugs, “Jaroth! I notice so many shipping containers here and needed to know why.” She said, looking around trying to find where he is coming from.

He laughs, “Of course, why, am I not surprised. Although never expected to find, the Lunaria Shepard, working with others. Here, I thought you much prefer to work alone.” He growls.

“So, I need a little help, nothing wrong with that. Doesn’t help that there seems to be a problem with large mutated Krogans! My employer isn’t happy about this.” She said, nonchalantly.

“Oh, that? Nothing you need to worry about.” Jaroth grumbles, “Of course, now that you know of this location, I can't have you leaving with that information!” He yells and FENRIS mechs and LOKI mech begin to attack the group.

Taking out her sword, Luna made sure to use her electric slash to disable any shield and to overload the machines. Garrus uses his proximity bomb for the FENRIS mech causing them to explore, and Urz took care of any mechs getting close to his master. Tali uses a hacking ability on the mechs before shooting one in the head with her shotgun, causing its head to explode.

“It’s like they are endless!” Tali yells as she shot another one in its head.

Luna snipes one from afar, “We need to find an exit!” She shouts, kicking one in the head and slashing another.

Garrus looks around to see if he could find anything when he spots a door and points.

“Over there!” He yells and they follow suit shooting the mechs along the way.

Once inside, they killed off a few more mechs before realizing this was a dead end.

“You think you outsmarted me? Hah, I don’t think so. Now enjoy your little corner.” Jaroth laughs, shutting the door behind them, keeping them locked inside. Red gas begins to vent through, it was red sand.

"That is not good," Tali whispers, trying to move away from the gas.

Luna glares and coughs as the red gas enters her system. Her eyes were beginning to change black as she could feel her power grow. It's as if she was on Purgatory or the Batarian slave ship, but without her changing into the Banshee. Garrus covers his mouth and coughs as it starts to enter inside of him as well.

"Red Sand, of fucking course." He groans, "We need to find a way out of this before it kills us." He said, coughing some more.

"Oh, you won't be leaving anywhere. You will die for even entering this system! My brother's life is on the line, and I won't let you fucking pieces of shit disrupt my business here! Once you are dead, Lunaria, I would make sure to sell your body to the highe-"

“Holy Shit! Would you shut the fuck up!?” She yells, cutting him off as she feels the pressure on her temple. Using her biotics today was getting to her, the stress of seeing the fear in Garrus' eyes was getting to her, and the Kaidan’s rejection, from days ago, was still getting to her! And now this shit!? This whole damn week was just shit and her head was killing her, ready to explode.

Garrus looks at her wanting to ask if she was okay, maybe even hold her. When their eyes met, they stared at each other for a while. He could see emotions behind them, but then her eyes completely change black, he swallows in fear feeling his body betray his feelings, and tense up.

She didn’t say anything as she looks away sadly. Using her sword, she windups and uses a powerful biotic slash attack, cutting through the wall that contains them. They quickly ran out of the room as Jaroth screams in anguish.

When they got far enough, Luna drops to the ground on her hands and knees breathing hard as she sweats. Coughing, she pulls a zipper down her suit just to get her body heat down. Her eyes went back to normal and she breathes holding her head, whimpering.

Not holding back anymore, Garrus rushes to her side.

“You okay?” he asks and she looks at him. He felt so far away from her, but he was so close. His hand reaches for her cheek before touching her head with his.

“T-thank you,” she stutters, breathing heavily as the pain in her head slowly goes away. She then remembers his eyes, and his fear for her; the bitterness consuming her again. Pushing him off her, she looks away from him, stands up, and walks ahead not wanting to say anything to him.

Tali frowns and touches Garrus slumped shoulders.

“Its okay, Garrus,” she murmurs and squeezes his shoulder, before following Shepard.

Garrus sighs, not knowing what to say or do. Shaking his head he follows, hoping he could find something to take his anger, and depression away.

They saw a door ahead and ready themselves before entering. Instantly, shots were directed towards them and they quickly went into cover.

A YMIR mech was suddenly allowed inside the small area. Luna uses her tactical cloak and rushes over to one of the vanguards. With her sword, she slashes at him and turns to the other one, stabbing him in the chest.

Before she could get to cover, her cloak went on cooldown, the YMIR mech aims, and begins to shoot at her. Garrus uses overload on the mech and shot at it multiple times allowing Luna to get into cover safely.

Urz jumps onto one of the Salarian engineers biting at his neck. He screams, dying as the varren took his life. Tali sent out her drone shocking the other troopers as she uses energy drain on the YMIR mech.

“The shields are down, Shepard!” Garrus calls out and Luna aims her black widow. Taking a breath she shot the mech three times and it stops attacking. Slowly, it loses its function before exploding onto a vanguard, causing the Asari to fly away, breaking her neck.

Jaroth walks out angrily, “Useless, you’re all fucking useless!” He screams, using his own drone to follow Luna around as he shot at Garrus.

Luna groans as another wave of pain pounds into her head; she lays on the ground pantings and mumbling for the pain to go away. When Jaroth's drone got to her, Tali uses her defense drone to protect Luna and tells Chiktikka to attack oncoming eneimes while shooting.

Urz rushes over to the whimpering Luna to protect her at the command of Garrus, while he begins to think quickly, trying to figure out a way to get to that piece of shit and shut him down.

Using a concussive shot at Jaroth, taking away his shield, he throws a proximity mine at him. He then took a stim pack and feels the boost that it gave him. Nilus wouldn't be happy knowing he's using stim packs again, after going through an addiction phase of it because of Omega, but with Luna down and Tali occupied; fuck it.

Energy pumps through his body and his shields increased. He glares at the Salarian, who looks at him in confusion, then uses his tactical cloak and became invisible.

Finally feel the pain subside, Luna sits up and kisses Urz's head while whispering he's a good boy. Looking away from Urz, Luna turns to look at Garrus. When she saw him use his tactical cloak, which he hasn't before, she was impressed.

_‘When did he learn to do that?’_

Jaroth starts to panic holding his SMG and looking around trying to find the Turian. Suddenly, Garrus appears in the air using his jet packs, with two Omni-blades on each arm aiming for one of his mercs, and slams the ground missing the merc, but caused the merc to stagger back. Garrus then quickly stabs the merc’s neck before he could retaliate, instantly killing him,.

Looking over to Jaroth, he smirks for a moment, before disappearing again, and using the same move on another Eclipse merc, killing her in the process.

Luna stood up and watches Garrus; her eyes were wide in awe and admiration while feeling very attracted to him right now; before using her electric slash at a LOKI mech heading towards her. Tali uses her shotgun on another LOKI mech that was crawling away and saw, Garrus appear again, using his Omni-blades to kill another merc.

He was like a Turian ghost

Jaroth screams in a panic and starts to shoot wildly around causing Tali and Luna, who commands Urz to get down, to hide behind cover. Garrus appears behind him and wraps his arms around his neck, Jaroth struggles to breathe.

“How does it feel to be helpless, after your crew died?” He growls in the Salaran’s ear.

"Wh...o are...you?" Jaroth struggles out.

“Don't remember me, huh?" He asks, darkly, "Don't remember Archangel?" he growls as his mandibles twitch in anticipation for what he's about to do. 

“Ar…chan..gel?” He croaks, punching at his arm.

“They didn’t deserve to die and yet, they did.” He said angrily; feeling his anger with one of the leaders who killed his crew and Luna’s rejection mixing into one. He squeezes more closing his eyes reliving the same scene that he’s had to live with for years.

Taking a breath, he snaps Jaroth’s neck, before dropping him to the ground. Breathing heavily he took a seat on one of the crates staring at the dead Salarian, his eyes full of emptiness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, Garrus' skills are the Turian Ghost from ME3 Multiplayer xD
> 
> Also! Brutes! Not mutated Turians and Krogans brutes, but similar lol.


	25. Stronger Than Our Fear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, you can't just give up. Sometimes, you just have to go for it, and not let fear keep you away from experiencing life.

Garrus took a deep breath as he searches around the area. Right now they are trying to find as much information as possible from the Eclipse. They need to find a reason why they are working with Maelon and/or Dr.Tunile. Sure, it can just be for money, but why would the Eclipse want to work on the Genophage cure?

It doesn’t make sense.

Opening a door Garrus walks inside to see a Batarian laying there slowly breathing. He was tied up, beaten, and dripping blood.

When he slowly wakes up, he stares at Garrus with eyes of emptiness. Garrus stood there trying to figure out what to do. This Batarian was tortured here, but why? What information does he have that the Eclipse wanted?

“Garrus, have yo-” Luna starts.

Garrus quickly closes the door in her face, locking it. The last thing he needed was Luna to think irrationally and kill a source of information because of her hate and anger toward his race.

“What the fuck? Garrus, what’s going on?!” She yells from the other side.

He rolls his eyes, “You can’t come in here right now. Need to do something, just go somewhere else.” He said, still looking at the Batarian, who is now looking at him in fear, but was unmoving as if knowing what is going to come next.

“Need to do something?” She whispers, “I..uh..get it. Just com us on the Omni-tool when you’re done.” She said oddly, which made Garrus wonder what the hell she thought he was going to do.

Walking over to the Batarian, Garrus took a seat and just, stared at him. There was this awkward silence as Garrus tries to form the questions that need to be asked.

“Who are you?” Garrus finally asks the Batarian.

The Batarian stares at him not saying a word, and Garrus knew he wasn’t going to answer that question.

“Why are you here?” He asks instead.

The Batarian looks away and lays there an emptiness in his eyes; he’s given up.

Garrus sat down on a crate in the room and sighs, not saying anything for a moment, trying to figure out how to get him to talk. He spots something on the Batarian and narrows his eyes on the tattoo.

“Blue Suns,” he said and he notices the Batarian tenses up for a moment.

“What do you want Turian,” he asks in a tired voice. His eyes now on Garrus, giving him a serious look.

“Who are you?” Garrus asks calmly.

The Batarian sighs, “Does it really matter who I am? You already know I am Blue Suns.” He said.

Garrus crosses his arms, “Then why are you here? There must be a reason why you’re being held captured here by the Eclipse.” He said.

“What do you think, Turian?”

“Information,”

“Now that you have your answer, you can kill me now,” he growls not looking at Garrus.

Garrus shook his head, “No, I want to know the information they wanted from you.” He said as he crosses his arms.

“You’re going to have to torture me for it then.” He laughs bitterly.

Garrus rolls his eyes, “What good will that do?” He asks before leaning back, “I guess the Blue Suns are pretty loyal,” he said shrugging.

The Batarian glares at him, “They wouldn’t know what loyalty is even if it slit their throats with it.” He grumbles, and Garrus was starting to form an idea.

“I’m going to guess you were betrayed?” Garrus asks.

The Batarian said nothing just lay there no longer looking so angry, but instead, sad?

“I was betrayed once. I ended his life for what he did.” Garrus said, sighing at the thought of Sindonis.

“I don’t think I would be able to do that if I am restrained like this.” He said, hinting at his bound state. Garrus stares at him, thinking about what he should do. The Batarian is not able to harm him, seeing how he is weak.

Garrus stands up and releases him from his restraints. The Batarian got up and sighs, sitting in a chair while trying to get used to being free.

He looks at Garrus, “I was betrayed and left for dead by the woman I love,” he said.

“Why?”

“Because she wanted someone else,” He looks at Garrus, “I was then found by the Eclipse after surviving on my own for a few days. They figured out I was Blue Suns and decided to interrogate me for information.” He said.

“Why didn’t you just give it to them? They would have let you go after, no?” He asks.

He looks down, “When you love someone, it’s hard to let go.” He whispers, and Garrus looks away staring at the door thinking about who’s behind it.

“I know what you mean.” He said.

The Batarian laughs bitterly, “That’s what I get for falling in love with a Human. My people would be disappointed in me.” He grumbles.

Garrus stares at him and swallows thinking about Luna, wondering if she would ever betray him. No, she wouldn’t…would she?

“What information were they hoping for?” Garrus asks.

The Batarian looks at him, “Something about Dr.Okeer.” He crosses his arms.

“Who is Dr.Okeer?”

“Someone my old boss invested in to create cloned Krogans for combat effectiveness.” He states.

Garrus narrows his eyes, “Cloned Krogans?” He asks.

“Yes, he wants an army of strong, healthy Krogan warriors to use as a front line. He couldn’t just ask for normal Krogans, they would kill him and too expensive.” He said.

“I’m going to guess the Eclipse wasn’t open about their plans on why they wanted Dr.Okeer.” He said.

The Batarian nods, “No, they weren’t, but I did overhear their leader talking about his brother being held, hostage.”

“Held hostage? By who?”

"Krogans. Something about them wanting him to handle things here as they do their work and if they don't they will kill him."

"Is there something else you got for me about Dr.Okeer?" 

He crosses his arms, “Sure, if ‘where is the Krogan located,’ and ‘how many Krogans were cloned?’ peak your interest.” He finishes.

Garrus sighs, “And you don’t know, do you?” He asks.

“No, I don’t. I was complaining about it being a bad idea, and how stupid Tarak was to even consider that. All because he’s obsessed with Archangel, who’s fucking dead."

Garrus looks at him in shock, “Did you just say Tarak? If Archangel is dead, why is he obsessed?” He asks with a hint of anger.

The Batarian looks at him weirdly, “Yes, Tarak, he is my old boss and the one who took her away from me.” He glares, “The reason for his obsession is because Archangel was a large threat, which forced him to work with the other gangs, Blood Pack and The Eclipse; he wasn't too happy about that. He became paranoid, and now he wants to make sure nothing like that happens again; by having some Krogan doctor create a clone Krogan army for him” The Batarian said, rolling his eyes.

“Wha-”

“Garrus, I found some new information about Maelon. Going to need you to open this door so we could talk.” Luna calls out.

Garrus looks at the Batarian before standing up and walking over to the door, opening it. Luna had her arms cross, giving him a look of annoyance. Before he could say anything she walks inside ready to tell him what she found until she saw the Batarian sitting there on a chair.

She glares, “Who is this?” She growls, ready to kill.

Garrus stood between them, “He’s someone with information that could be helpful to us.” He said.

She laughs, “Then tie him up and torture him! The easiest way to get them to talk.” She said, angrily.

Garrus shook his head, “No, there is no need to do that.” He simply said.

Luna glares at him, “You have got to be fucking kidding me, Garrus. You have no right to be moral after what you have done these past two weeks.” She almost shouts.

He sighs, “He hasn’t done anything wrong. If anything he’s innocent and has been tortured. I thought you only attack and kill people who deserve it, Shepard.” He coldly said, getting her to back off.

She looks at the Batarian and glares at him,

“You have a look of a slave,” The Batarian said, and Garrus glares at him. From behind him, Luna’s eyes went black.

“I know what it’s like to be one,” he quietly states looking at Luna, and everything pauses.

“What?” Luna asks.

The Batarian continues to look at her, “I said, I know what it’s like to be one.” He repeats.

She continues to stares at him in disbelief not able to process her mind at learning this.

“No, that’s not possible. Batarians wouldn’t….they only attack Humans.” She whispers.

“My people have always had slaves, even before Humans.” He shrugs.

“So they enslaved other races?”

“Rarely. The other races have more power over us, so, we simply couldn’t, but humans were new and inexperienced. So, we had that to our advantage. It’s easy to enslave the weak and inexperienced.” He said.

Luna was at a loss for words.

He looks away from her, “I’ve been a slave for most of my life after my parents sold me for some food. I know the eyes of a slave, and not just because I used to be a slaver, but because I was one.” He said.

She glares, “You claim to be a slave, but became a slaver!?” She shouts.

“Of course, why wouldn’t I? I had to survive somehow in this brutal galaxy. Joining the Blue Suns as a Batarian, it’s expected of me to do so.” He shrugs.

“How could you live with yourself!?”

He laughs bitterly, “I can’t, actually. It’s why I was betrayed.” He sighs, “I’ve become too soft, no longer a ‘real Batarian’ no longer…a ‘real man.’” He grumbles.

Luna looks at Garrus in question, who shook his head, wanting her to not ask him about it.

“Garrus says you have information for us.” Luna said, crossing her arms, “Give us this information, and I will let you go.”

He looks into Luna’s eyes, and she saw the emptiness within them, “Going to need a drink first.”

***

Garrus was in the battery calibrating the Normandy’s gun. This was a nice past time as it allows his mind to focus on only this one thing, instead, of another.

For a moment his mind went to their Batarian passenger, Uvek. It did take a lot of convincing, but Luna allowed him on the ship. Right now, he was in life support with two guards watching the door at all times.

A whimper was heard, and Garrus turns to see Urz looking at him sadly.

Garrus chuckles, “Come on, boy. Let’s get you to the shuttle bay so you can walk around. Hey, maybe Jack is there.” He said, and Urz barks in happiness.

Heading to the elevator, Garrus saw the two guards talking quietly among themselves. Walking over to them, they stepped aside giving him access to the room.

He saw Uvek looking at the massive drive core.

“Impressive isn’t it?” Garrus starts, causing Uvek to turn around and greet him.

“Yes, this ship is something else. Must be expensive.” He said, walking over to his cot and sitting there.

Garrus nods, “I don’t know the full amount, but I heard it is.” He said, remembering the tour with Luna. It seems so…far away, and as he thought about it…it was.

“That Human, Shepard, is your lover?” He asks, looking at Garrus.

Garrus coughs, “No, we’re uh…we’re just partners in this mission. Once it’s over we’ll go our separate ways.” Garrus said, trying to hide his sadness.

Uvek stares at him, narrowing his eyes, “Sure,” he said, “Is there a reason why you came in here, Spectre?” He asks.

“I wanted to know how things are going.”

He shrugs, “They hate me, but that’s understandable. Wouldn’t mind walking around, but that would be suspicious. At least the food here is good. Better than most of the shit I ate when I was in the Blue Suns.” He said with a bored tone.

“The intel you gave us was good. If only you knew what planet they decided to have the facility on.” Garrus sighs.

“Yeah, wouldn’t mind going there and shooting every single one of them for betraying me,” Uvek growls.

Garrus laughs, “There seems to be a lot of betrayal and revenge on this ship,” He jokes and Uvek chuckles quietly.

Garrus looks at the Batarian when the whining from Urz reminded him of why he left the battery in the first place.

“All right, Urz lets go; we’ll talk later Uvek,” Garrus said to him and Uvek nods. Leaving the Batarian, Garrus made his way to the elevator.

When they finally got to the shuttle bay, Garrus was greeted by Jacob, who was shirtless and doing lifts as Kasumi and Jack watches. Kasumi rarely wears regular clothes, but she was wearing workout attire, which surprises Garrus a bit. Jack was also wearing something more modest, but still, show her plenty of tattoos.

“Oh yeah, this show is just amazing,” Jack said grinning.

Kasumi giggles, “This isn’t even the best part,” she grins, winking at Jacob as he places the heavyweight down.

“Is this all I am to you ladies? Just eye candy?” He asks, laughing as he wipes himself with a towel.

“Nothing, but the prizeeee, right Jacob?” Kasumi asks, breaking out into laughter as Jacob looks embarrassed.

“Come on, Kasi, you said you’ll never bring it up again.” He groans.

Jack laughs, “Are you serious? He said that?!” She shouts in tears.

Kasumi giggles, “Oh yes, someone had one too many drinks that night, he couldn’t help it.” She said while grinning mischievously, “Didn’t ruin the performance though,” She winks.

Jacob was about to say something when he spots Garrus.

“Hey, G, how’s it going?” Jacob asks as he walks over to him.

He looks behind Jacob spotting Kasumi using her hand to measure out something that he didn’t understand, but the gesture was signifying it as big; Jack’s face was full of wonder as she turns her eyes on Jacob.

“Everything is fine. Urz needed to move his legs, so, I came down here.” Garrus said as the varren ran off toward Jack, who begins to play with him.

Jacob nods, “Well since you’re down here, want to spar? I want to see how good I am against a Turian.” He grins.

Garrus chuckles, “Give me a bit to warm up first.” He said as his mandible twitches, happy to have a sparring partner. Jacob nods at him, and he walks over to a corner to prepare his body for the match.

As he warms up, Zaeed took a seat near him, drinking and watching Jack play with Urz.

“You and Shepard made up yet?” He asks.

Garrus looks at him, “No, don’t think we ever will, to be honest.” He said, sadly.

Zaeed shook his head, “That’s a lie. You both care about each other too goddamn much.” He grumbles taking a drink.

“Shepard only cares about how people look at her, or what they think of her. Doesn’t matter if you have feelings, or willing to be there for her no matter what.” He balls his hand into a fist, “All because of fucking Kaidan.” He growls.

Zaeed looks at him, “Shepard is just stubborn; kind of like you.” He chuckles.

Garrus stops, “What?” He asks.

“You’re a stubborn kid. I mean, look at you. The woman pushes you away, not because she doesn’t want or cares about you, but because she’s scared of you rejecting her. Instead of being like other men, you decide to still want her.” He laughs taking another swing of his drink.

Garrus narrows his eyes, “I can’t just…let…her go.” He whispers realizing his statement.

Zaeed looks at him, “Exactly, because you are stubborn. Being stubborn isn’t always bad, but it can become a problem if left unchecked. Luna needs someone stubborn right now. Someone who is going the extra mile for her. Someone who doesn’t give up on her,” He whispers, looking at Jack.

“I don’t want to come off as obsessive, I just…care a lot about her,” Garrus said.

“It only comes off as obsessive if you won’t allow yourself to be happy without her and demand her to be with you." He sighs, “Honestly, love is complicated and doesn’t have any true guidebook."

Garrus coughs, “I don’t love, Shepard, as I said, I just care about her.” He said.

Zaeed looks at him, “Yeah, okay.” Zaeed laughs again as Garrus groans.

When Zaeed when quiet Garrus turns to look at the old man. A small smile was on his face as he watches Jack lifts Urz with her biotics, while Kasumi films.

“Are you…ever afraid of her? Jack, of course.” Garrus asks, nervously.

Zaeed didn’t look at him, just kept looking at Jack.

“Of course I am, she almost killed me!" He laughs and takes a gulp of his drink, "but I don’t let that shit stop me from being there for her.” He glares, “I abandoned her before. I won’t do it again.” He said.

“How do you get over it?” Garrus asks.

Zaeed sighs, leaning back, “It’s not easy. Hell, I can’t give a straight answer to help you, because honestly, I don’t even think I'm fully over it,” He whispers, “but, I love my daughter. She’s the only family in my life, and the remainder of my girl.” He said, taking a drink again.

Garrus turns to see Jack patting and kissing Urz.

“She came to me last night, and we talked. Connected. It's a start, and I am grateful for it.” Jack looks away from Urz and looks at Zaeed, their eyes meeting. “I say, ask her. Don't give her an ultimatum, that's manipulative, just ask her one last time if she really doesn't want to be with you; and if she says no just let her go.” He said, smiling at Jack, who smiles back.

***

“Absolutely not!” The Salarian Dalatrass shouts.

Garrus rolls his eyes as she continues to bicker back and forth with the Salarian Counselor. At the moment they are on Tuchanka, getting Wrex so they could head to Sur’Kesh. The Dalatrass is not particularly happy about the Krogan warlord part, or the criminal, Lunaria Shepard, part. She was not happy about any of the parts, even with Garrus.

“Whether you like it or not, Dalatrass, I need to go to Sur’Kesh for my mission. You know, the one that could cause a lot of problems in the galaxy?” Garrus points out, crossing his arms.

“You think, you could just come to our home planet with that Krogan! You must be out of your damn mind!” She shouts.

Garrus groans, “You have his people there!”

“Because they were being experimented on! They should be grateful to us for helping them!” She yells.

Garrus was getting a headache as he squeezes his eyes tight to stop the loud drilling in his head. She kept talking, yelling, shouting! Fuck, her voice was the worst thing to listen to right now.

“As a Council Spectre, I am authorized to go to Sur’Kesh for the safety of our galaxy! If you do not comply I will have to report this incident to the entire, Council! They will judge you as they seem fit!” Garrus finally said, shutting her up.

She narrows her eyes, “You can’t bully me into submission.” She growls.

Garrus glares at her, “You will not stop me from doing my mission!” He shouts causing her to wince.

“Is this how the Spectre act now, Valaren?” She asks looking at the Salarian Councilor.

He groans, “I am not in the mood for this right now. Please, give him the access he needs to do his job.” He grumbles.

“What about the criminal? Lunaria Shepard? She is a theft.”

Garrus sighs, “She will be with me at all times Dalatrass.” He said.

Leaving the QEC, Garrus walks through Dr.Shepard’s lab noticing she wasn’t there, and into the command center. Pausing he thought about where they were going and realizes, it’s Sur’Kesh, the place his mother stays, trying to recover from her disease.

Taking a deep breath, he walks towards the cockpit, wanting to talk to Joker about something.

Once the door opens up, he was greeted with laughter from Joker and Luna as they told each other jokes. Joker was the first to notice him.

“Oh! Hey, Garrus,” Joker said.

“Hey, Joker,” he said, but was looking at Luna. Their eyes met, but Luna looks away.

“So, what’s the plan? Did they say, yes, to Sur’Kesh?” Joker asks.

He nods, “Yeah, just wanted to come here and tell you we could head out.” He said and Joker nods preparing the ship to head out.

Garrus looks back at Luna, feeling a bit sad that she wouldn’t look at him. He thought about his mother and how painful it’s going to be to face her alone.

With a sigh, he leaves the cockpit.

As he was walking he heard the door to the cockpit open and close.

“Garrus, wait!” She calls out to him.

Stopping in his track he looks at her, questioning why she was calling out to him with his eyes and twitch of a mandible.

“Why don’t we go into the airlock for some privacy?” She asks.

Garrus nods and he walks inside with Luna behind him. Once inside, and the door shuts, Garrus turns around to look at Luna; he notices she was nervous.

She bit her lips, “Your….your mother is on Sur’Kesh, right?” he nods, “Well…would you want me to come with you?” She asks, nervously.

He gave her a shocked look, “Y-yeah, I would like that. Was hoping to ask you, but I got too nervous and decided not to,” he said, rubbing his neck.

She gave him a small smile, “I know how important she is to you…and since you were there for me on Mindoir, I want to be there for you.” She said softly, looking into his eyes.

Garrus didn’t say anything just looked into her beautiful red eyes. His hand moved on their own, cupping her cheek. She rests her head on his hand, enjoying his touch, and not looking away from him.

 _‘She wants this as much as I do.’_ He thought.

Leaning his head down to her, he kisses her lips. It was slow, and just a peck, but it was full of repress emotions. He opens his mouth and guides his tongue to her lips; he was worried she would push him away, but instead, she opens her mouth and allows his tongue inside.

Her arms wrap around his neck and moans as his hands travel to her ass, squeezing. It wasn’t long until he pushes her against the wall, his body acting on its own.

He groans when she rubs his fringe, and behind his neck. Her soft hands caressing him, causing his plates to shift. Garrus starts to allow his primal instants to take control.

Grabbing her hands he pins them against the wall and pulls away from her lips. Luna moans louder as he starts to lick and nip at her neck, particularly by his mark; she can feel it tingle each time he goes near it.

Their eyes met, intensely, as they grind against each other, Garrus felt himself wanting to feel her again, connect with her again.

Unfortunately, Luna shook her head, “Garrus…Garrus!” She shouts, wanting him to stop. When he did he was breathing heavily, wondering why she wants to stop.

“W-what’s wrong?” He asks, breathlessly.

She pushes him off her, “We…we can’t.” She said in conflict.

He looks at her in disbelief, “What? Why not?” He asks.

She bit her lips and shook her head. Turning around she begins to leave, but Garrus steps in her way, blocking her from leaving.

“Move,” she said.

He shook his head, “No, not until you tell me why we had to stop. What we just did, Luna…” He said desperately for her.

She shook her head, “I said, move, Garrus. I mean it.” She said.

“No,” He said looking into her eyes, “I’m not moving until you tell me why.” He said, calmly.

She glares at him, “This is my ship, and you will do as I command! Now, Move!” She growls, pushing him, but Garrus stood his ground knowing that if she wanted, she would get him to move.

“No, Luna, please, please don’t push me away anymore.” He begs. “Tell me why we need to stop, and I will move.” He said.

She continues to glare, before closing her eyes for a brief moment. Opening her eyes it was fully black and Garrus was shaken. His body trembles, wanting to run away at the sight of her eyes. He could hear the scream, see her sickly thin body moving closer and closer to him; he was burning!

She was calm as her face got closer to his while on her tiptoes.

“You’re scared of me, that's why. You’re scared I will try to kill you again.” She whispers, “Now, move.”

He shook his head, “That’s unfair. This is unfair.” He repeats, not moving, not yet! He won’t let fear take control! He’s in control!

She smiles sadly at him, “Life isn’t fair,” She whispers, as she sees him shaking in fear, breathing hard against her.

“You're being manipulative! Stop pushing me away!” He shouts, she winches at his word, feeling guilty.

Garrus was breathing heavily as her image kept shifting from Banshee to Luna to Banshee to Luna. He twitches and shakes, but he doesn’t move, he couldn’t! He can’t!

Slowly her hand reaches up to his face as she kept looking at him with black eyes. Her image kept changing; he would fight his mind to keep it as Luna, but it would then change back to Banshee Luna, over, and over, and over! Until it stops on Banshee Luna.

Her sick smile, the tilt of her head; she was quiet, but when her mouth opens it was slow, taunting and touching him as his breath hitches in his throat. He couldn’t breathe!

“Move,” She whispers, and his whole body felt on fire. He tries to stand his ground, he tries so damn hard; but the burning was intense, her entire being was acid, he was melting!

He jumps, back against the wall, breathing hard and trembling as he grabs the walls for support. He glares at the ground, angry at himself for not being able to control his fear.

He then looks up at her and saw she was staring at him with empty eyes, crying. Without a word, she walks out the door as it closes behind her.

Garrus screams in frustration, punching the wall over and over. Before sitting on the floor, head in hands, frustrated.

***

Landing on Sur’Kesh wasn’t so bad. Only a few of them were allowed to the secret base of STG, as long as Garrus was there with them.

At the moment; Garrus, Luna, Laena, Navi, and Wrex were sitting in a shuttle as it drove them to the STG base. Laena wanted Karin to come along, but she decided to stay on the Normandy.

“Wrex, I don’t want you to start a damn war when we’re on Sur’Kesh,” Laena said, crossing her arms.

Wrex rolls his eyes, “Come on, Laena, you know me.” He laughs.

She sighs, shaking her head, “That’s the point; I do know you. Just promise me, okay?” She said.

He looks at for a brief moment before groaning, “Fine, I won’t start a damn war.” He grumbles.

She smiles and touches his arm, Garrus tilts his head slightly, are they not hiding it anymore?

“Hey, Garrus! You never got back to me about the upgrades,” Navi said, her face full of wonder. From the corner of his eyes, he saw Luna looking at them oddly.

Garrus chuckles, “Sorry, Navi. I forgot, had a lot of things on my mind,” he whispers looking at Luna; she turns away biting the skin around her fingernails.

Navi notices and sighs, “Sorry to hear that. Does that mean you didn’t use any of my new techs?” She asks, sadly.

He touches her shoulder, “No, I did. It was great. The tactical cloak you installed went great. So were the jet packs and double Omni-blades.” He chuckles, as his mandibles twitch in excitement.

Navi grins clapping her hands, “Awesome! I still need to work on making it better, but I’m glad the test run went smoothly! I was a bit scared it would have backfired.” She bit her fingers.

Garrus tilts his head, “You bite your fingers as well,” he said.

Navi stops and looks at him, “Wait, what?” She asks.

“Yeah, just like, Shepard.” He whispers.

Navi giggles, “Well, we are sisters! I think I got the habit from her when I was smaller. Shh, don’t tell her.” Navi whispers.

“He doesn’t have to, heard you loud and clear and you are sooo lying!” Luna said, coming up from behind them and hugging Navi. Because Navi was shorter than Luna’s breast were on top of Navi’s head.

Navi groans, “Ugh! Get your big titties off me!” She grumbles, wigging to get her sister off her.

Luna laughs, “Nope! I love you too much, Navi!” She said.

“Mommy!” Navi whines and Leana sighs as she begins to tell them to act appropriately.

Garrus watches the Shepards interact and it made him chuckle. Thinking back to his younger days of annoying his little sister, while she calls for their mother. He then starts to feel a bit nervous about meeting his mother. Maybe, he should visit another time?

Landing at the base, Garrus was the first to come into contact with Padok Wiks, who greets the Spectre with a smile.

“We were informed of your arrival, Spectre.” He said.

Garrus nods, “Did you receive the body of the mutated Krogan and its data?” He asks, cutting to the chase.

Wiks nods, “Yes, Spectre. Right now, our top scientists are looking into what was found. If you will accompany me downstairs, please.” He said, walking towards an elevator.

Garrus and the other follow suit until sniper lasers were aimed at Wrex, who growls in annoyance.

“If it’s a fight you want, it’s a fight you will get,” Wrex said, going to take out a weapon, but realizing he doesn’t have any.

“What is the meaning of this?” Laena asks, walking in front of Wrex and crossing her arms with a frown.

“I am sorry, we are not allowed to have a Krogan walking around the facility. The Humans and other Turian can come with, but the Krogan must stay here.” A Salarian soldier said, aiming his weapon at Wrex from the side.

Garrus glares, “He is with me, and I will make sure he doesn’t do anything to cause an issue.” He said.

The Salarian shook his head, “Doesn’t matter. The Dalatrass told us about the deal, Spectre Vakarian, but the Krogan must stay here under supervision for safety reasons.” He said.

“Those females are my people, and I won’t let you keep me away from them!” Wrex shouts. He was about to use his biotic powers when Navi steps in.

“Relax! God, no need to start a fight.” She took out a vid pad, “I had a feeling something like this would happen. No way Wrex would be allowed to walk around in this base.” She hands it to Wrex, “This will give you data feed of what mommy is looking at. What she sees, you will see.” Navi said.

The Salarian glares, “We won’t have you recording sensitive information here!” He shouts, causing Navi to wince at his tone.

Leana smiles sweetly at him as she walks toward the Salarian.

“Refrain from speaking to my daughter that way.” She threatens using her black eyes to scare him to submission, “There will be no recording of any information. Wrex simply wants to make sure the females are safe. Two of them already died, which is already causing tension,” She took a deep breath, “Why don’t we all calm down and look at the bigger picture.” She finishes.

Garrus nods, “Dr.Shepard is correct. The reason why we are here is to make sure the females are responding well to treatment here, and to look into the data we got from the Eclipse and the mutated Krogan.” He said.

The Salarians all look to one another wondering what to do.

“If it makes you feel any better, you could look into my tech,” Navi said.

After some more debating and understanding, Navi was allowed to stay with Wrex as the others left with Wiks.

“Don’t cause my daughter to get hurt, Wrex. I care about you, but I will kill you if anything happens to her.” Laena said glaring at the Krogan.

“Nothing will happen to her, never thought I would say this, but, would you relax.” He laughs as she rolls her eyes.

“Don’t worry mom, I can take care of myself,” Navi said her mandibles twitching in happiness.

Laena sighs and nods, leaving her daughter felt a little painful, but she was growing up, and turning seventeen in a few days.

As they were heading down on the elevator, Laena looks at Luna who was quietly looking at the floor.

“You’ve been awfully quiet, my moon, is everything okay?” She asks.

Luna sighs, “Hmm? Sorry, just thinking. I knew you had things handled so, I just allowed myself to think at the moment.” She said, softly.

Garrus looks at her and wanted to hold her. Looking down, he sighs in defeat, thinking back to what happened in the airlock.

When they reached the floor where the females are, they were greeted by Dr.Mordin.

“It’s good to see you again, old friend,” Laena said giving Mordin a brief hug.

Dr.Mordin smiles, “It’s good to see you are well, Dr.Shepard.” He looks at Garrus and Luna, “you both as well, Shepard, Vakarian.” He said.

“Nice to see you, Dr.Mordin,” Garrus said.

“Good to see you again, Mordin.” Luna gives him a small smile.

Dr.Mordin looks around, “Where is Wrex?” He asks.

“They wanted to keep him under surveillance,” Laena said, crossing her arms.

He shook his head, “No, can’t have that, need healthy Krogan male. It’s why I asked for him to come.” Dr.Mordin shook his head in annoyance.

Garrus looks away from the angry Salarian towards the females, and where they were staying. Walking over to them, Garrus saw a Salarian typing away.

He tries to remember their names.

“We remember you,” The smaller Krogan speaks, a small smile on her face, “It’s me, Unya.” She said.

Garrus nods, “I remember you,” he turns his head one of the females who look as if she was praying, “You must be the Shaman?” He asks.

She turns to look at him, “Yes, and this is Jun’ka,” She said, sadness in her voice.

Jun’ka begins to cough violently, holding the Shaman’s hand. When she finally stops, two-three minutes later, she turns to the Shaman and gasps.

“I wish to go back to Tuchanka, I want to see my world before I die.” She gasps, before coughing again.

The typing Salarian shook his head, “That would not be allowed,” he simply said.

“I want to go home as well, I miss home so much. How would you feel locked in a cage far away from the homeworld not allowed to go back?” Unya whimpers as tears fell from her eyes.

The Salarian looks at her, sadly, before going back to his work, typing away.

“Your immunity-” He starts.

“Is not the reason we are being kept here.” The Shaman spoke, standing up she glares at him, “We are being kept here because your leaders do not want us to leave, cured of the Genophage.” She said.

Garrus looks at the Salarian who looks at her shocked, before looking away again.

“No, at the moment your immunities are not functioning well, that is all.” He said and didn’t say anything else.

“I am sorry to inform you, but the cure has changed.” Luna starts as she stands beside Garrus, “The cure that Maelon is creating is not what it was before. It’s mutating the Krogans making them become, a term that in their data file, brutes.” She said.

The Shaman stares at her, “What…do you mean?” She asks, afraid.

Luna sighs, “These are brutes,” she shows a projection of the footage she captured.

The Shaman shook her head, “I don’t understand, why? Why would he do anything like this? I know he was horrible when looking for a cure, but this…this is something else.” She said in shock.

“Maelon is working with a new person, her name is Dr. Oklie Tunile, and she’s a Krogan doctor who is was an apprentice of Dr.Okeer,” Luna said, crossing her arms.

“Dr.Okeer? Dr.Tunile? Those are old names I have not heard in a long time.” She said.

Luna looks at her oddly, “I learned about Dr.Okeer from Wrex. He committed war crimes against the Krogan people and was exiled. Dr.Tunile is a mystery to me, besides being Dr.Okeer’'s apprentice, but I am waiting for some more information from my employer.” She said.

The Shaman nods, “I know of Oklie, she was someone who suffered many times because of the Genophage. A smart and talented Krogan, who had the misfortune to witness so many stillborns in her time.” She starts.

Luna frowns, she could already see where this was going.

“Each time she had to deal with it, she broke, and I could see it. One day she disappeared into the night and was never seen again. We believed she killed herself, as sometime the women will do so after suffering for so long. I did not know she went to work under Dr.Okeer.” The Shaman said.

Luna looks at Garrus, “Her motivation is clear, but why is her ‘cure’ creating brutes?” She asks.

“Because of the changes within the genes. It’s the result of forcibly changing genetics too much.” Dr.Mordin said as he walks over to them with Laena, Wrex, and Navi.

Garrus looks at Wrex, “Looks like you were able to come down here.” He said.

“Yeah, after threatening to eat them!” Navi grumbles.

Wrex didn’t say anything just stare at the female locked inside, angry at how they are kept.

“This? This is how you treat our females? Locking them in this cage!?” He growls, clutching his hand.

“Their immunities are very low, we must keep them contained to ensure they stay alive.” The Salarian said.

“Dr.Mordin, what do you mean, the genes have changed too much?” Garrus said.

Dr.Mordin sighs, “Krogan body is trying to adept. Change to fit the situation. Then the addition to Maelon’s experiments and now Dr.Tunile has added her own. Too much!” He said, shaking his head in disappointment.

Jun’ka coughs violently again, and they all look at her. She wheezes holding the hand of Unya, who held sadness in her eyes.

“Please, Jun’ka, please don’t die.” She whispers.

Jun’ka laughs, “Young one, I do not wish to die in this place. I want to die on Tuchanka, where I belong.” She said before coughing again.

“If that’s the case, Mordin, get my females out of there!” Wrex growls.

Laena rolls her eyes, “‘my females?’ Really?” She glares at him.

“What? Jealous?” He laughs.

She shook her head, “No, but they have names, Wrex. They’re not just ‘my females’, they are Jun’ka, Unya, and The Shaman. These women have been through enough, the least you could do is respect them and call them by their names.” She said softly while turning back to the females.

The Shaman nods at her, “I, thank you, for your kind words.” She said.

“It’s a pleasure,” Laena smiles.

Luna finish typing at her Omni-tool, “I found a way we could get the females out of here. Without trouble, of course.” She smiles proudly.

“What did you do?” Navi asks.

Luna laughs, “Have an employer with power.” She said, shrugging.

***

His heart was racing as he stares at the door. Taking a deep breath, he begins to walk towards it, but couldn’t.

Turning around, Garrus jumps to see Luna looking at him.

She bit her lips, “Everyone is back on the Normandy. Thought I follow through with my promise and come with you to see your mom. If…if you would want me to.” She said.

Garrus looks back at the door and shook his head, “I…I think I’ll come back later,” he said, sadly. As he begins to walk away, Luna stops him.

“Garrus, no, you shouldn’t wait. You should talk to her.” She said.

He sighs and turns back towards the door, his heart begins to race again. He shook his head disappointed in his cowardness.

_‘Come on! It’s your mother!’_

Soft hands slid into his and entwined. He looks down in shock seeing Luna’s hands in his. When he looks into her eyes, she gave him a small smile.

“I’m right there with you, you’re not alone, I promise.” She said, softly.

With confidence, Garrus walks into the room.

She was singing while looking outside a smile presented on her face as she taps her hand to the beat.

Garrus took a deep breath and coughs, gaining her attention.

Galina gasps, “Garrus! Oh my sweet boy, you finally could visit me.” She said. She looks down to see their entwined hands, she looks in question.

“This is Lunaria Shepard, mom. She and I have been working on a mission for a while now.” He said.

Galina looks at Luna oddly, “A Human did not expect you to be with one, Garrus.” She said with no malice.

Luna bit her lips, “I…know you must hate my kind,” she starts.

Galina laughs, “Oh, my dear no need to worry about that. Maybe in the past, yes, but I have moved past that hate. There is so much in the galaxy to love and care about. If I wasted all my time hating Humans, I would not be happy.” She said.

Garrus let go of Luna’s hand, much to her displeasure, and quickly took his mother into his arms, hugging her tightly. When their heads met, he felt like a little boy again. Staying up on a school night playing video games.

“Mom, I’ve missed you.” He whispers.

Galina sighs, “I’ve missed you as well, my sweet boy.” She whispers.

Both Garrus and Luna sat down and spoke to Galina. They never went into details about their relationship, or lack of, but there were still many nice conversations between the three.

“Sometimes I remember, sometimes I forget, and sometimes I can’t do the things that I want to do,” Galina said.

“What are those things, if you don’t mind me asking?” Luna asks.

Galina laughs, “Well, for one, there is shooting. I used to be so good at my guns, but now sometimes I can’t see correctly, or hold my gun steadily.” She said.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Luna said.

“Oh, don’t be sorry. I’ve accepted this after a long time of being in the hospital.” She said.

Garrus took her hand, “I’m sorry mom; I know you would like to be out and about.” He said, sadly.

She shook her head, “No, don’t be sorry! I get to walk around here whenever I like! I swear!” She laughs, “I’ve accepted the fact I am going to die, and time is quickly going by.” She starts.

“Mom,” Garrus said angrily.

She pats his hand, “No, I won’t let you hide from this Garrus. I know how you are, I gave birth to you! I am going to die. I don’t know when, but I will. And I’ve come to accept that fact. Life is beautiful. Life is hard. Life is unfair. Life will always have death.” She said.

Garrus looks down shaking his head, he didn’t want to hear this. Luna rubs his back softy, thinking of her father.

“I came to terms with this one night after being alone with your father. I kept asking the spirits, ‘why? Why must you take me away?’ They of course didn’t answer me, but then I realize, even if they take me away, I have lived!” She said.

Garrus looks at her, “What do you mean?” He asks.

“I mean, I have lived! I was born and grew to adulthood. I met my husband and mothered two amazing children. Yes, this disease has shortened my life, but I have lived! I have no regrets. I had hardships. I fell in and out of love. I experienced so many things, good and bad. I accept my death.”

Garrus sighs and Luna leans on his shoulder telling him to just listen. Galina looks at Luna oddly.

“A Human did not expect you to be with one, Garrus.”

They both looked at her shock, and she sat there for a moment studying their expressions. Blinking a few times, she frowns.

“I said that before didn’t I?”

“Yes,” Garrus whispers full of sadness.

She laughs, “There I go again, forgetting!” She laughs with a hint of sadness, “Where did I leave off then?” Her mandibles twitch in happiness.

“Your acceptance of death and your experiences,” Luna states, holding back tears that threaten to fall.

She nods, “Yes, experiences. Like this one time when Garrus was three years old! Oh, he was so small and tiny, look at him now.” She said looking at Garrus.

“Mom, please don’t tell an embarrassing story of me.” He begs.

Luna giggles, “I want to hear.” She said.

Galina giggles, “When he was three,” Garrus groans, “he used to love running around naked! When his father and I had important guests one night, Garrus ran out naked as the day he was born!” She laughs and Garrus tries to hide his embarrassment.

“Really?” Luna said, looking at Garrus.

“It’s hot on Palaven. Naked is normal.”

Galina laughs, “Oh his father ran and chase him around the home, not able to get my little one! Garrus was always a fast Turian, we Turians are naturally fast, but Garrus is different.”

“I can definitely agree,” Luna laughs and Garrus joins her. Galina smiles and laughs alongside them, her mandible twitch in excitement.

“Sometimes I remember, sometimes I forget, and sometimes I can’t do the things that I want to do,” Galina said.

Luna stops laughing immediately, her face slowly becomes sad as the tears she was holding, fell from her eyes. Garrus looks at his mother with sad eyes and took his her hand as she blinks, realizing she forgot again.

“Oh my, did I say that already?” She asks, there was a flicker of sadness in her eyes. Shaking her head, she looks at them, “All the moments in my life I've told you about? I've forgotten at one point. They come back as if someone hit the rewind button, but sometimes they don't. Instead, they are a white screen in my head. I already have forgotten how to do certain things. Most of them mild."

"It's okay, mom." Garrus starts.

She sighs, "Sometimes, I get scared. Scared that I will completely forget the ones I love. But then, I realized, no, I will not be scared. I will be stronger than my fears!” She said, determinedly.

Garrus looks down, “What happens if you are scared? Scared of the one you care about.” He said, looking at his mother, Luna bit her fingernails not looking at him. Galina notices their reactions to each other and thought.

She crosses her arms, “Well, that’s just silly, Garrus. You are a strong-willed Turian, fear won’t keep you down! I know this because you are, mines, and Castis’ son!” Her mandibles twitch, “Don’t be scared; don’t let fear stop you from experiencing life. Life seems so long, but it’s unpredictable and shouldn’t be taken for granted, so, live it.” She said, her eyes looking far away.

"Sounds like something my mother would say." Luna softly smiles.

Galina looks at them, noticing their marks, "Your mother is wise." Her mandibles flicker, "I see you have Marked each other."

Garrus swallows, "Yeah, we...we did accidentally." He almost whispers and Galina could see the heart break in their eyes, knowing they are not in a great place.

"Accidents happen all the time." Her eyes are hard and Luna feels out of place, but soon after her eyes soften, "Accidents can show a connection, and people could bond from it." She smiles, "A Mark is only a Mark unless you are fighting for it. There is a reason why we call it a Bondmark and not just a Mark."

Both Garrus and Luna look at each other in the eyes. Their entwined hands tighten.

***

Garrus was standing outside her cabin, he wanted to talk. Hearing his mother's words hit something in him. Although this isn’t a cure-all, he’s not going to back down, not this time.

This will be the final act. This will be the entire truth. No longer will he pursue her if she doesn’t want this.

He sighs, thinking about losing her completely, more than before. Living a life without her seems so mundane and depressing. But he thought that way of Mayre, and he was able to move on and fall for another. Luna wouldn’t be any different.

Knocking on her door, he waits.

When the door opens up, Luna is on her Omni-tool with her mother.

_“Mordin is a smart and cunning man,” She laughs, “Oh, it’s wonderful we found a way to help the Krogan people!”_

“Yeah, never thought he would do that. Although, wouldn’t he be on his government's shit list?”

_“Yes, sadly, but he said he is content with it. Said he would rather spend time at a beach away from it all, to finally retire.”_

She looks at him and puts her hand up before he could talk.

“Do you think he could just…stop?” Luna asks as Garrus walks into the cabin eyeing the fish tank.

 _“Oh heavens no! I know Mordin, he would find a way to study something!”_ She laughs.

Taking a seat at her desk, she crosses her legs.

“Any luck in finally out where Dr.Okeer is from the Batarian?” She asks annoyed.

_“He has a few ideas, but we need some time to pinpoint. Doesn’t help that Mordin wants to study this cure a bit more since we have Wrex.”_

“Has he been corporative?” Luna said a hint of malice in her voice.

_“Yes, Uvek is quite different from your run of the mill Batarian. At first, I was a bit hesitant, but he’s been answering. I believe he wants to join you to deal with his former boss.”_

“Absolutely fucking not, mom,” Luna growls.

_“It’s time to lay the hate of all Batarians to rest, my moon. I know it’s hard to believe, but there are good Batarians out there.”_

“He used to be a slaver, how the hell is he now ‘good’?”

_“And we used to eat our own kind and savor the taste. How are we ‘good’?”_

“Because of the Batarians!” She shouts.

_“Yes, but Uvek is not those Batarians. My moon, people change all the time. I’m not saying to be friends with him, or to forgive all Batarians; and I’m certainly not saying he’s ‘good’ I’m saying he’s changed, give to him a chance.”_

“And if he betrays us for the Blue Suns?”

_“Kill him.”_

Luna sighs as Laena tells her she needs to go. Garrus could see the torment and dilemma Luna was going through when it came to Uvek. Should they trust him? Should they not?

Luna turns to him, “So, what’s up?” She asks cleaning up some datapads on her desk.

“I want to have a serious talk,” She looks at him confused, “about us.” He said.

She sighs, “Garrus, please…let’s not do this right now,” She said, standing up.

“No, we need to talk about this, Shepard. We’ve just been avoiding each other nonstop and I am sick of it.” He said not moving as she gestures for him to leave.

She shook her head, “What do you want from me, Garrus? I have too much on my mind to keep treading this ground.” She said crossing her arms.

Garrus got close to her, “What I want? What I want is for you to tell me the truth,” he said looking into her eyes.

She rolls her eyes, “What truth? That you are scared of me? That you won’t let me go?” She glares.

He glares back, “No! The truth that you still want us!” He said, loudly.

“Why do you keep pushing and pushing! Just let go of the idea, already!” She shouts.

“Look me in the eyes and tell me, you don’t want us! Don’t bullshit me, Luna, I want you to be honest. Tell me, you don’t want us.” He said.

She stares at him and he could see it, the tearing down of her walls, but then she would build it over. The fight in her eyes begging for him, yet wanting to push him away. He walks closer to her, and she backs away hitting the wall.

“You heard my mother, she told us not to let fear stop us from experiencing life.” He touches her cheek, “I’m not going to let fear stop me from being with you, but I want you to be honest, Luna. Do you want us?” He asks staring into her eyes.

Luna trembles, “I don’t want us,” She said, but her eyes told him something else. Her facial expression told him something else.

He shook his head, “Fine, then I'll go” he whispers and pulls away from her.

“What do you want me to say, Garrus!?” She shouts, placing her hands on his chest; he watches her breath hitch and her hand softly caresses him, grabbing him lightly.

“Nothing, you said you don't want us, and I'm going to respect that. You are right, I keep pushing and pushing, as if I am demanding you to be with me, and it's wrong. I just hope you will finally let go of this fear of being judged when someone does care about you, and be happy.” He said stepping away from her. He took Zaeed's advice and asked her one last time, and now it's time to move on.

“Garrus, please…,” she begs.

“What is it?” He asks, turning to her.

"You're scared of me." She gasps.

"Yes, I am; but I'm willing to work on it for you. Just because I'm scared doesn't mean I don't want you," He said calmly.

“Show me...please, show me you're not scared of me,” She whispers as her eyes became fully black and she touches his arm.

He starts to breathe hard, but he didn’t back down. Walking closer to her, she backs away and hits the wall. With a twitch of his mandibles, he made sounds of wanting to her. Before placing his hands flat on the wall, and trapping her between him and the wall while staring at her eyes.

“I...can't stop showing you my fear, Luna, but what I can show you, is how much I lo-care about you,” He said, catching himself. He was so close, he could kiss her, but unconsciously his body trembled a little.

She notices and shook her head, “No, I don't believe you. Give it a few minutes and you will fear and want to leave me,” She whimpers, the nightmare of Kaidan starts to play in her head. 

Garrus swallows, and squeezing his eyes, trying to push the image of her changing to the Banshee, out his mind. Standing tall, he looks into her eyes. Confidently, he was going to tell her how untrue that was, how much he wanted to be there for her.

But then, instantly, something changed. Luna wasn't Luna anymore, instead, she was sickly thin, with her hair falling out, and her eyes were full of an intent to kill, not of shame and fear.

She chuckles, “ **Garrus, don't lie to her; you fear me. I am the monster in the dark. The one you believe will kill you.** ” Banshee Luna whispers to him.

He felt paralyzed hearing 'her' talk. Memories of that mission, the burning, the fire; he was struggling.

" **Oh, would you look at that? Poor, pathetic, and useless Garrus, are you scared?** " She mocks while laughing. 

"Garrus?" Luna whispers and touches his chest. She wanted to push him away and run, but something inside of her didn't want to. Although, looking into his eyes right now was proving difficult on holding off from pushing him away.

Taking a deep breath, he kept looking into her eyes forcing himself to not look away. Her sickly thin arms wrap around his neck, pumping her powers into his body. Garrus was trapped in his mind as this fear begins to consume him. 

" **Why don't you l** **eave, and never come back here, Garrus. Your fear isn't wanted here. Just.Like.Kaidan.** " She whispers. He glares at her and she stops laughing.

"I'm stronger than my fear." He whispers and took a deep breath, "I will not leave you. I want you, Luna." He said, determinedly. Luna stares at him in shock and was about to respond back when, his mouth crashes onto her lips, looking into her eyes. Not able to help herself, Luna moans, and his mandible twitches in excitement. 

Roughly, he begins to grind into her not able to resist her. Luna moans louder, wrapping her arms around his neck and rubbing his fringe, grinding into him.

Pulling back from kissing her, he looks into her black eyes, breathing heavily. She looks at him confused and scared he was going to leave, until his hands reach for the bottom of her shirt, pulling it off her head. Before she could say anything, he licks and nips at her neck, causing her to moan his name in pleasure.

Her hands grasp at the upper part of his clothing and he pulls back to take it off. For a moment, she touches his scared body, remembering what she did. Her hands were so soft to the touch and it made Garrus groan in pleasure.

When she looks at him, he grabs her arms and forces them against the wall, before kissing her hard. Their bodies were hot against each other. Wanting to feel more of her, he let go of her arms and reaches down to squeeze her ass, hard, with both hands.

She moans as their tongue dances together and she pushes him back. His eyes went wide at the force, as he flew backward.

When he felt himself float, he looks down and notices the bed under him. She gently drops him on the bed. He lays there for a moment before sitting up and looks towards her.

Slowly she walks to him, and his mind switches to Banshee Luna slowly walking towards him just like on Purgatory. Squeezing his eyes shut and opening right after, he looks into her eyes, unafraid; and she switches back to Luna.

She stops in front of him and begins to strip for him, breathing heavily. Taking the opportunity, he took off the rest of his clothes.

He sat there staring at her naked body, counting and remembering all her beautiful scars he claimed for himself. As his eyes travel from her legs to her thighs, past her stomach, above her breast, and into her black eyes.

Luna stares hesitantly at him, before going on her knees in front of him, and begins to plant butterfly kisses on his slit. As her tongue begins to lick his slit, he shivers in pleasure and grips the bed. It wasn't long before he was exposed.

She slowly rubs her hand on his cock and kisses the tip. Looking at him, she begins to lick the tip and softly nibble it in a way he enjoys it. He groans and runs his hand through her hair. Kissing the shaft, she leans down and licks from the base to the tip, before taking it into the mouth. 

Her lips look juicy and big from his view. His eyes look were locked with hers and she took him deep in her mouth. Coming back up, she took it out from her mouth and licks the shaft again while moaning and breathing heavily, getting turned on herself. Hearing her moan was intoxicating, and he twitches in her hand. 

Seeing him twitch made her smile a sweet smile to him, and he swallows. His cock was glistening wet with his own wetness and her warm saliva. When he saw her reach under herself, he knew what she was doing. A part of him wanted to tell her to stop, but he was too busy being with her at the moment.

Biting her lips, Luna grabs her breasts and place his cock in between them. Garrus was surprised at this change, as this never happened to him before. Grabbing her breast from below, she proceeds to rub her large breast on his hard wet cock, licking the tip of his cock sometimes. Her nipples were hard and he lightly brushes them causing her to moan quietly as she sucks him off. 

"Fuck..." He grunts, feeling himself getting closer to the edge. She's definitely gotten better at this. He starts to thrust into her breast and mouth, slowly losing himself to the pleasure. Before he could grab her head to fuck her mouth, he was picked up and forced fully onto the bed, on his back.

He went to sit up, wondering why she did that. Deep inside he was pissed, he was so damn close.

When he was slammed down onto his back, he was in shock, until she straddles him. Leaning down, she places her hands flat on the bed on each side of his head, looking down at him.

He tries to calm his breathing, “I don't like not being in control,” He teases.

Slowly, her head leans down, stopping with her lips above his mouth. He stares into the abyss of her eyes, feeling himself twitch in anger at not reaching his release.

“Tonight, I'm in control,” she said and kisses him.

He went to grab her waist, but she was using her powers to prevent him. Oh, he was not able about this.

Thrusting hard against her, he chuckles when she moans and grips the sheet. Licking her hot puffy lips, she grabs his cock, slips inside of her, and grinds on him.

"Fuck...Luna..." He groans. Her back was straight and her hands were not on his chest as she grinds on him, looking down at him with a grin. Fast and hot. Intense and rough. Spirits, he’s been waiting for this moment for so long after their ‘break up’.

"This is me, Garrus, this is all over me. I can't...change who the fuck I am!" She screams, not angrily, but in pleasure as his cock hits her g-spot.

“Give me your all, baby, I'm not...afraid,” he gasps breathlessly, as he thrusts deep inside of her.

She looks at him, “Your...your not afraid...of me,” She whimpers and shakes. Grabbing her breast, she starts to rub her nipple and bounce on him while rubbing her swelling clit. When her body begins to glow, Garrus grips her waist, after feeling his lock of control coming back to him. 

He was panting as his talons caused her to bleed. Something animalistic was deep inside of him, like the night they first met. Her pussy was squeezing him so tight, he gasps at the tightness. Their eyes met, and his hand reaches up to her neck and squeezes lightly as she closes her eyes.

"What I told....you about closing your..eyes," He growls, and she bit her lips as both her hands grab his arm that's choking her. 

"Luna, open your eyes and look at me," He growls again and she looks at him with her mouth wide open moaning loudly.

She whimpers, "Yes...yes, Sir," 

He couldn't take his eyes off her and was happy how good she was being right now after everything they been through. Smirking, he slaps her ass as a reward but grips it hard as a punishment.

Gasping at the feeling of pain and pleasure, she leans forward onto his chest and uses her hands to keep herself steady as she rode him. He wasn’t going to be slow, he couldn’t stop himself to do it. Grabbing her waist he lifts her up and brings her down as he thrusts deep into her.

Her hips move in line with him as she meets him with each thrust. Not able to keep steady anymore, even with her hands, she leans completely forward on his chest and grabs the sheets, gasping at the pleasure. He slaps her ass each time he finishes lifting her up to bring her down and thrusting deep inside of her.

"Oh, fuck, please! Harder!" She begs.

Garrus slaps her fats ass again before sitting up. Luna instantly wraps her legs around his waist and begins to lick and bite his neck. Pulling away from his neck, she kisses and nips at his mandibles as she rubs his sensitive fringe.

Leaning back with her arms on the bed behind her, she uses one of her hands to start rubbing her clit in from of him. Watching her pleasure herself as he pumps deep inside of her, made him go faster. 

“I should...punish you,” he gasps, and she looks at him. His body tenses momentarily at her eyes, but fought against it and kisses her lips. Desire burned through his body as he stares at her beautiful black eyes. 

"You won't," She said, challenging him. 

His hand touches her stomach and rubs it. Luna pants as she rubs her clits faster, getting turned on by his touch. He looks at her, before moving her hand from her clit. She fought against him, and they wrestled until she was on her hands and knees, her ass facing him.

Slapping her hard enough to hear it, he guides himself back inside of her, making her squirm.

“G...Garrus, oh…God.” She whimpers biting her lips and grabbing the sheets as her toes curled at the pleasure.

As he continues his motion, he leans down and bit her neck. She whimpers at the pain and twists her body to fight against him. He chuckles and starts to move faster and rougher, slapping her as much as possible, making her whine and beg for the pain. Her powers begin to push into his body and he groans at the pleasure. 

Pushing her down on the bed, he grips the sheets feeling himself getting close, as he pounds harder, rougher. She bit the sheets as her body glows, sweat dripping from her body, her heart was racing, and she was beginning to tense up for the release. Luna was squeezing his cock and he knew she was going to come.

“Luna,” he gasps, pumping into her faster. Growling, he grabs her hair, causing her to arch her back and force her to look up at him

She opens her eyes and stares at him. 

“Come for me!” He commanded; she the process to grin as she comes for him. Her nails dug deep into the sheets as her pussy squeeze his cock.

“Garrus!” She yells, as her body glows red/blue and enters into his body. He lets go of her hair and grabs her shoulders tightly with his talons causing her to bleed.

“Fuck,” he groans coming into her awaiting sex, filling her.

They stood in that position for a while, before Garrus, tirelessly rolls onto his back, groaning as he feels his cock going back inside.

He was breathing heavily when he felt soft hands touch his chest, and he turns to see her smiling at him with her black eyes.

His mandibles twitch in happiness, not feeling the fear that he used to, at least not at the moment.

Luna looks down and bit her lips, “Going to clean me up, Sir?” she teases. He looks down to see his cum on her.

“Sorry, but I am too tired to move. Next time, I promise,” He groans.

Luna giggles, “Promises, promises," she pokes him, "At least most of it is inside of me, although, if I get pregnant I would be concerned.” She jokes, getting up and getting a cloth to wipe herself off; Garrus looks at her shock.

“Can…you? I mean…” He asks in a panic.

She looks at him wide-eyed, “What! No! I mean...I don’t know. No, definitely not.” She said quickly, and heads under the covers with Garrus following after.

While on their sides, Garrus wraps his arms around her waist and they entwine their hands. He sighs in satisfaction knowing things are going back to what it was, hell, even better than what it was.

A few hours later, Luna woke up, feeling the need to use the bathroom. Garrus woke up mumbling for her to stay, she smiles and kisses his mouth before heading to the bathroom. Watching her go, Garrus sighs in happiness when she jiggles her ass for him while she walks to the bathroom.

With a groan, he sits up and picks up his pants wanting to feel a bit warmer without Luna there. His mandible twitches as he felt the need to use the bathroom, figured he could just go in the shower. 

Walking over to the bathroom, he hears a chime from her Omni-tool.

“Hello?” Luna said.

Garrus wonders who is calling at the moment as he kept walking towards the door.

“Kaidan? Hi!” She said, happily.

Garrus stops in his tracks at ‘his’ name.

_"Oh, it's Kaidan, Garrus!"_

_'Shut up...'_ He thought

“You’re available this time?” She asks.

_"Why? You know it's true. Whenever Kaidan comes into the picture, she would want to be with him again"_

_'Shut....Up.'_ He thought again, shaking his head from the dark thoughts.

“Um…I…yeah, I can see you.” She said quietly, but Garrus heard. Doesn't help that she sounded, hopeful?

He felt his heart sank at the mention of her seeing him.

“Lunch at the Citadel? Uh...I don’t know,” She laughs, nervously.

Clutching his fist, he internally begs her to decline! She’s with him now! Right?

“You know what? Yeah, lunch does sound good.”

_"Don't tell me to shut up! You know it's true!"_

_'It's not! Luna wants me, not Kaidan! It's just a...'_ He internally groans at the thought.

_"Date."_

_'It's...it's not a date'_ He denies.

Shaking his head, angrily, he picks up the rest of his clothes and heads to the door, which automatically opens when he approaches. With hesitation, he looks at the bathroom door.

“I can’t wait to see you.” She said with happiness.

Hearing that line crushed him, he tries to push the thought away, because it's bullshit to overthink it. No, if anything it could just be friendly. There is no fucking way in hell she would just...want her ex after what they did together, after what they went through together!

 _"But, she can't wait to him."_ It mocks.

 _"No, please, just...leave me alone. I just want to be happy. Why can't you leave and let me be happy!?"_ He internally screams.

_"Hear how happy she is? Face it, Garrus...she doesn't want you."_

He didn't want it to win, didn't want to listen to it. But, fuck. It's so hard when everything keeps repeating!

As the heaviness sinks on him, it dawned on him, she doesn't need someone like him in her life. Someone this pathetic. She deserves someone better, someone, who isn't depressed.

"Fuck," he whispers in deep sorrow and he left. 

_“I’ll just…finally get the Mark removed when we’re on the Citadel. She deserves someone happier than me.”_ He thought as he enters the elevator; hitting the button for deck 3. He's depression winning over him as the fading dark thoughts consume him.

_“Spirits, you are worthless.”_

_"Garrus, Garrus, did you really think you are a good fit for her?"_

_"Of Course Not!_ _You don't deserve someone to love you, to care about you!"_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahh Depression, what a fucker you are. Growing up with depression has been hell, I tell ya. Learning to live with depression has been rough! But you know, such is life. Sigh...
> 
> Anyway! I hope you enjoy this week's chapter. Five more chapters to go! I'm excited, are you? I just realized, I posted the 25 chapter on the 25th awesome!


	26. I Promise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luna and Garrus make promises after she finally gets the closure she needs to starts a new chapter of her life.

Luna was sitting down on the Citadel at the Presidium, and everything was beautiful; from the flowers to the ‘sky’, to the people.

She groans at the beauty of this place and wishes for Omega, at least Omega wouldn’t be so damn pretty and perfect.

“God, I hate this place,” she grumbles, playing with her hands and taking deep breaths trying to calm her quick beating heart.

She was nervous as she waits on the man she saw as her first real love and her first true heartbreak. Immediately, she thought about Garrus, and how he disappeared after their coupling. She didn’t understand why he would leave, but it broke her heart when she tried to talk to him, and he would ignore her. Maybe him coming to her was all a lie?

She dismisses the thought, knowing it’s stupid to assume things.

“It’s been three days though, Garrus what the fuck?” She angrily whispers to herself.

Looking up, she didn’t see Kaidan anywhere and sighs.

“Maybe I should just…go,” She said disappointed. After a few more minutes, she stands up to leave believing he wasn’t going to come.

“Hey, Shepard.” She heard and turns around to see him smiling at her while breathing hard as if he was running. Her heart skips a beat staring at him and his damn smile.

Smiling, she nods, “Hey Kaidan…or should I say Alenko?” She asks, looking nervous.

He took a deep breath, “Kaidan is fine, Shepard. So sorry I am late! Were you going to leave or?” He asks with a hint of sadness.

“No!” She shouts and mentally slaps herself, “No, I was just standing up. Sitting down for too long makes me irritated.” She said taking a seat.

He smiles and joins her, “Damn, I am really sorry for being late.” He laughs and she smiles missing his beautiful laugh.

Looking down at her lap, she tries to push away the seed of doubt, wanting to talk to him. She closes her eyes shut as she felt her heart hammering from her chest, she felt like exploding as the fear took control of her body.

He orders some food, “Would you like something to eat by the way? I’m paying.” He smiles as he calls over a waitress. While she was taking his order, Luna was mentally fighting herself.

_‘Stop smiling at me! Talk Luna!’_

“Y-yeah! I would like something,” She orders, and the waitress walks away.

He coughs and folds his hands on the table, “So, you wanted to talk?” he asks.

Taking a breath she looks at him, “Yes…I want to talk about…what happened.” She starts and he nods, “Kaidan I-”

“Wait, Shepard, may I say something first?” She nods, “I want to tell you, I’m sorry for how things ended.” He sighs and grabs her hand, “I had time, like a lot of time, to think things over and after some time, after some years, I realized how important you are to me. How much I…still love you.” He whispers, looking in her eyes.

Her mouth was dry and she felt her heart pick up, was she going to have a heart attack?

“I told you I would always be there for you, but that was at a time I wasn't prepared, or ready. Yes, seeing you in that state scared me, hell, it still scares me now just thinking about it, but…I want to try, again.” He said.

Luna stares at him, realizing, she didn't want that at all. At first, she thought it was because of Garrus, but that reason doesn't feel right. As she stares at the man in front of her, Luna knew, she genuinely didn't want to try again with, Kaidan.

Kaidan was special to her, yes, but things had changed. He was right to be afraid of her, he was right to want to stay away from her, she understands! But…thinking about it, she just doesn't trust him.

“I tried to get into contact with you for some time, but it was like you were a ghost. Captain Anderson didn’t want to give me any information, and I could tell he wasn’t very fond of me.”

She still couldn’t speak, not knowing what to say as she listens to him.

He held her hand tighter, “Luna, I miss you so much. I couldn’t get you out of my mind. I’ve tried dating other women, but none of them were like you. When you called me to talk. I was excited to finally see you again.”

She took a large breath, “Kaidan,” She pauses looking everywhere but at him, “God…I had everything planned on how I wanted to talk to you.” She laughs.

Their eyes meet and she felt eighteen all over again when they first met.

“I was hurt when you pushed me away. I felt scared and alone as if the galaxy was crumbling down on me. I’m ashamed to admit this, but I tried killing myself.” She laughs, “Fuck, sorry, that’s not something to laugh about.”

“I was worried you would try that,” he frowns.

“Yeah, was hospitalized for a few weeks, God, I was a wreck.” She looks at their hands.

“Luna, I-”

“Let me finish,” She sighs, “For days, for years, I would think and dream of that moment. It would haunt me from time to time, reminding me what happened, reminding me how you…left me." She said, angrily.

He looks away guilty, but she smiles and squeezes his hand.

She looks at Kaidan, “Kaidan, I love you too, I miss kissing you, holding you, and being with you.”

He looks hopeful as a smile appears on his face.

“But we can’t be together,” she said finally and he frowns in sadness.

“I thought…I mean…” He starts and sees could see the heartbreak in his face.

“I don’t trust you, Kaidan, I don’t trust that you are capable to stay with me during my darkest time.” He was about to say something, “and I understand you are scared of me. As you should be, I am not normal. I am not ‘human’, at best I am a mutated human. I don’t hate you, Kaidan, as I said, I love you, and you were one of the best things to ever happen to me.”

He looks away not able to face her and she places her hand on his cheek making him look at her.

“I always dreamed of us married, and with kids. I even thought of a name for our son or daughter! Kadeen for our daughter, and Lucian for our son!” She laughs and he smiles, chuckling a bit.

“Sounds beautiful, I love those names.” He whispers.

She frowns, “But you left me, I even tried to contact you, but you blocked me. I gave you some time to maybe think it over or understand where I’m coming from. I wanted you to love me through my darkness. I know I fucked up, but we were supposed to be a team. We were supposed to communicate with each other to get through that tough time in both our lives, but you decided to not even try. I trusted you, Kaidan.” Tears fell from her eyes.

“Luna, I’m sorry.” He said, and she stares at him, waiting. Waiting for that moment of relief. He said he was sorry, so where is her closure? She’s been waiting for this moment for years! Yet, it doesn’t feel like anything. She should be happy, right? So, why does it still feel as if there was something left unsaid?

_“No one can give you this closure, but you.”_

A moment of realization washes over her as she heard her mother's words. She stares at him wide-eyed with her mouth slowly opening in shock. He looks at her oddly about to say something, until she starts to laugh.

“Shepard?” He asks in concern as she laughs louder, people began to look over wondering what’s going around.

She starts quieting down, “Kaidan, do you know why I asked you to come here?” She asks.

He scratches his head, “You wanted to talk? Although, a part of me was hoping for us to maybe try again.” He said.

She shook her head, “I came here for closure. Believing I needed to just talk to you, so I can get over this self-hate and trust issues.” She said.

He looks at her, “Did it work? I hope I was able to give you the closure you wanted, Shepard.” He sincerely said.

She smiles back at him, “No, It didn’t, Kaidan because even if it’s what I wanted, it’s not what I needed.” She said.

He nods, “Well, what do you need? I'm willing to do anything to help, Luna.” He said.

She sighs, “No, it's okay. I thought I needed you to feel okay with myself. I thought I needed you to tell me you are sorry for what you did, so, I would finally get over you and be happy.” She shook her head, “But I realized, that’s not how it works. You said, you were sorry, and yes, I am happy that you did, but it wasn’t enough.” She said and suddenly felt tears forming in her eyes, of course, becoming emotional.

She shifted in her seat, trying to form all the words in her head. 

“Ever since the Batarian ship, I’ve hated myself for being different. And whenever I find someone who says they like me for me, I would just, latch onto them, because I didn’t know how to fucking love myself. I needed others to love me, and God, that was the worst mistake of my life. I place this horrible pressure on others, such as yourself, to give me what I want; and when I don’t get it, I flip. I push people away and told myself to hate them. They fear and hate me, so why even give them a chance?” She whispers.

Thinking back to Garrus, she shook her head at her stupidity. She starts to remember his confession on Novaria and how happy she was to hear it, but because of him being scared of her, she pushes him away even if he was willing to still be there for her.

She sniffs, “I tried,” she gasps as her throat burns, “I tried so damn hard to be human, to not be a freak. Fuck, after what happened with you, I hated myself more than ever before. Hell, I didn’t even feel like a freak anymore, I felt like a monster instead.” She gasps.

She thought back to all the times she would cry and beg to be normal. How she would scream at others for their comments about her.

“I am, Lunaria Shepard. I command the Normandy, I have a job that I love to do. I have a loving mother and an adorable sister,” she wipes her eyes, “I lost my father when I was young. I was a slave to Batarians, and because of that…I am different.”

She takes in a deep breath feeling a weight off her shoulder.

She chuckles to herself, “I eat levo and dextro food. I used to be a cannibal to survive. I have a short temper. I have this power in me that could, at a time of extreme stress, be very explosive and dangerous to myself and the people around me. I could be overly emotional at times, and cold-hearted another time. I make mistakes, I’m clingy and I’m overprotective of the people I love.”

When she said love, a thought flashes of Garrus, and she stops talking for a moment before pushing the thought away. Yes, she cares deeply about Garrus, but to love him? No, she’s not ready for that.

She shook her head and smile, “I can’t change nor will I ever be anything but different,” she said proud of herself, “I still struggle to love myself, to accept who I am, but I’m okay with that.” She finishes. Her words brought her back to the night with Garrus, and she suddenly feels hot and bothered at the thought.

_"This is me, Garrus, this is all of me. I can't...change who the fuck I am!"_

Kaidan nods, “I’m sorry for not talking to you, and for not working things out with you. I should have fought for you.” He said quietly.

“Thank you, and I’m sorry for hurting you that day, Kaidan. I shouldn’t have joined the fight knowing my mental state.” She said quietly.

When their food came they ate silently, not knowing what to say to each other. Kaidan coughs getting the attention of Luna.

“I understand, you don’t trust me right now. But, maybe, in the future?” He asks.

Luna smiles, “Yeah, maybe in the future.” She said, biting into her steak.

He chuckles, “Well, I'm glad. Maybe, there is a chance we could, I don't know, try being together again?” He laughs nervously, scratching the back of his neck.

Luna swallows and looks at him, “That's not going to work, Kaidan, there…there is someone else in my life. It's why I needed this moment, to finally close this chapter in my life and move on. I don’t know where we stand, at the moment, but he’s special to me.” She said.

He looks away trying to hide his hurt, “Oh…does…does he know?” he whispers, sadly.

“Y…yeah, he’s seen the worst of me and he didn’t run away.” She said awkwardly. She didn’t want it to come off as some kind of brag or a ‘fuck you’ to Kaidan. She just wanted to tell him the truth.

Kaidan looks back at her, “Lucky guy. I’m glad he isn’t like me.” He gave her a small smile.

She nods, “No, he isn’t like you, he’s one of a kind,” she whispers, thinking of Garrus and their night together. Wishing she knew why he left, and why he wouldn’t talk to her.

Kaidan watches the emotions in her eyes, “If he ever hurts you, tell me, okay?” he said.

She briefly chuckles, “Or what? You’ll beat his ass?” She asks grinning at him.

“Oh yeah, of course.” He grins at her and was he flexing?

“I hope you know how to fight a Turian Spectre, heard they are elites in their field.” She jokes.

Kaidan’s eyes went wide, “Turian Spectre…damn. Doesn’t matter, I won’t run away this time. I promise to protect you from harm, Luna.” He winks and smiles.

Her heart races, “Thank you, Kaidan.” She smiles and they continue eating their meal.

***

Garrus looks around the hospital noting the small amount of Turians here. He wonders if they are waiting for the same thing he was. There is a good chance that isn’t the case, after all, this hospital is mainly for Turians' health, not just this one thing.

He looks down at his lap staring at his hand as he wonders how he should feel about getting this surgery done. Does he really want to get it done?

The thought of her smile made him hesitate, and the night they were together was amazing; but then there was Kaidan.

He thought they were finally together!

Fuck

Maybe, he shouldn’t have reacted so hastily. Maybe, he should have communicated with her about Kaidan, and what he heard. What if he didn't listen to the fucking depressed demon in his head, and just talked to her?

Would she have told him about Kaidan? After being compared to him non-stop. After always having to be second best to Kaidan; he just couldn’t take it anymore!

_“I can’t wait to see you.”_

Garrus felt his heart sank even more. No, she chooses Kaidan. Always about Kaidan. Would a relationship work anyway, after all, a relationship is built on trust? Could he trust her to not fall back into the arms of her ex? Clearly, not.

 _‘Trust, heh.’_ He thought leaning back in his chair.

He’s learned his lesson about trust from Mayre, as much as he loved her, she didn’t trust him about her health problem. She, instead, lied in fear of hurting him.

He clutches his teeth in anger.

If Mayre trusted him, she would be alive right now, maybe, he doesn’t know, but it was a possibility they could have pushed for her to have the right organ that would keep her alive!

But would he have met, Luna?

He sighs in annoyance, the kissing, the sex, the cuddling, and the promises! It was clear they were official, no? So, why even go on a date with her ex-boyfriend? It was disrespectful to your current boyfriend! How can she not see that? Yes, they never said anything about being together, but it was implied!

Then again, he left before she could say something, he also ignored her every time she would come near him. Maybe, there was another side to the story, but, maybe, there isn’t.

So many negative thoughts fought against him every time he tries to push it away with a positive reason why she decided to go on a date with fucking Kaidan.

He buries his head in his hands closing his eyes.

Why can’t she see how much he-

“Garrus?”

He looks up and saw Iika standing there with a surprised face. Without thinking he stands up and looks at her, she looks…happier.

“Iika, it’s good to see you.”

She smiles, “Good to see you as well.” She said, taking a seat next to where he sat; he decides to sit back down.

“How have you been?” He asks happily to finally get out of his head.

She touches his hand and he tenses, “I’ve been good,” she said, pulling away from him. She was really…happier.

“Something’s different about you.” He wonders and she giggles.

“Oh? And what do you think it is?” Her mandibles twitch in excitement.

He stares at her in question. There was something about her that screams happy as if she couldn’t hold in this excitement.

Garrus starts to think of his mother and how happy she was during breakfast when he stood up late playing Mass Effect.

His eyes went wide

“You’re Pregnant?!”

She claps, “Yes! Yes! I am pregnant!” She squeals, and a low congrats from random people went her way.

He starts to panic, this isn’t the time! How could she be pregnant with his child! He just wasn’t ready to be a father right now. Spirits.

Noticing his eyes, she giggles and touches his shoulders, “It’s not yours silly, or I would have given birth already. It’s my boyfriend’s, were not officially bondmates as I want to take things slow now, but he’s good to me.” She smiles and Garrus calms down, happy for her.

“Damn, I’m proud of you Iika. I knew you would find someone to love you for you. If he ever hurts you, know that I am there for you.” He chuckles and she punches him. His mind went straight to Luna when she does this.

“Oh please, I could handle myself.” She looks at him, “But, thanks, that’s very kind of you.” She whispers and they enjoyed the quiet moment.

When Iika starts to hum, his mind drifts to Luna, and wonders what she is doing. Wonders if she still on that lunch date with Kaidan. Most likely going to a hotel to be with one another, at least he could say Kaidan is getting his fucking ‘sloppy seconds’, as Lamont love’s to say once he hears a woman is going bed with someone else after he’s fucked them.

Garrus chuckles darkly as he thought about how he was the one to fill her up with his seed, not Kaidan. Wouldn’t matter, she was still in love with the fucker anyway. It’s not like he didn’t fucking leave her when she needed him most? Fuck Kaidan! Spirits, he wishes she could get pregnant with him just for it to fuck over her relationship with Kaidan.

He took in a deep breath and looks down in defeat, jealousy, and anger. He shouldn’t think of Luna like this! Spirits, what is wrong with him?

He was being selfish, and jealous because he was hurt. He should be happy for her, she deserves peace and happiness. Unlike him, who deserves nothing, but misery and death. If he has to let her go, then so be it. That’s why he’s here right? To let her go, get the surgery to finally unmark himself from being with her.

Sure, she needs to do the same if she wants to date another Turian, but that doesn’t seem likely.

There was a pain inside of him now, as if it physically hurts thinking of her and her ex, or should he say boyfriend, together. His heart starts to race, pounding in his chest as if he was getting shot at by multiple guns.

Spirits, this was painful

He’s going to have to see her smile and be happy with this man. Get married to him and…ultimately have kids with him.

A drink would be nice right now.

_“You’re available this time?”_

_‘“You know what? Yeah, lunch does sound good.”_

He shuts his eyes tightly trying to push the words out.

_“I can’t wait to see you.”_

He sat up straight trying to make sure not to show any emotions to the others around him. There was so much pain, it hurts, and he wishes he was dead right now.

He almost laughs

How pathetic of a man to be this emotional, no, for a Turian to feel this way, and over a Human, of all things. His father would be disgusted by him right now. Fucking idiot. Must be a woman with all these damn feelings. Hell, Turian woman wouldn’t have all these feelings.

His eyes harden

No, he won’t feel this way anymore. What’s the point of emotions anyway, it’s just a hindrance in his work. Just like Shepard said.

_“We’re on an important mission right now, Vakarian. No reason to get feelings involved.”_

Isn’t in his character to be this emotional anyway.

“Garrus!” Iika shouts, finally getting his attention.

He looks at her, “W-what?” He asks in a panic.

She shook her head, “There you go back into this brooding mode.” She laughs, “I kept asking you why you are here? Doing a checkup?”

He looks away from her, “No,” he said coldly.

She tilts her head, “Are you here to take away your bondmark?” She asks.

He didn’t say anything, but he could feel the mark tingle, and the pain in his heart restarts.

 _‘No, I won’t allow myself to feel something so trivial.’_ He growls to himself.

She places her hand on his shoulder, “I don’t think you should.” She said, softly.

He glares at the wall, “Why?” he asks.

“Because it’s painful!” he grunts and she rolls her eyes, “Because you love her.”

He turns to her wide-eyed, “What? No, I don’t” He gasps.

She shook her head, “You do. I even saw it when we ‘broke up’. Maybe love is too strong of a word, but you guys were just…happy.” She said.

He shook his head, “Doesn’t matter she’s with her ex…boyfriend, talking to him right now.” He said, sadly.

“And how do you know that? Did she confirm it with you?” Iika asks her brow plates raised crossing her arms.

He coughs, “Well…I overheard her an-”

“You overheard her? Then did you talk to her about what’s going on? If not, don’t make such a hasty decision; she could just be talking to him about what happened."

“You think so?”

“Yeah, I mean, I don’t know what happened between her and her ex; but for her to go back to talk to him? There are two reasons why she would. One, she wants to go back with him, or two, she wants to talk to him about why they broke up.”

Garrus stares at her as the pain in his heart was starting to fill with hope. No…he can’t be like this! She’s definitely going back to him.

“She sounded so happy when speaking to him, no, I know she’s going back to him. Plus, she told me beforehand she loves her ex.” He said as if it was final.

“I remember being so mad after you broke things off with me. Seeing you two together that day. It was heartbreaking.” She looks at him, “I couldn’t get over you Garrus, and I was deeply infatuated with you that I honestly believe we were meant to be.”

He felt guilty for leading her on, what an idiot he was.

“You want to know why I wanted you to Mark me so bad?” He nods, “Because I believed we were soulmates. I believed a Mark is a soulmate mark, something that could never go away. Learning you were marked by a Human drove me insane.”

“That’s not how Marks work.”

She laughs, “Oh, I know. It was a silly idea, but it was something I believed in.”

“So what, you think Shepard and I are soulmates?” He grumbles.

“No, Garrus, what I’m trying to say is people change." She touches his shoulder, "You automatically believed she’s going back to this ex of hers without even talking with her. There is a good chance she’s changed and doesn’t love her ex anymore, at least not like before.”

He didn’t want to hear this, didn’t want to hope.

“The day things ended between us, was the day I needed to change. it helped me see things I needed to work on. As time passed I was able to heal, move on, and change; effectually getting the closure I needed for myself, and eventually, I met Kilan. Now, here I am, pregnant!” She said happily, holding her stomach.

He thought of the times together with Luna and smiled, they were some amazing times.

Iika crosses her legs, “Tell me, do you know how they broke up? How did she feel after? How long ago was the breakup? I don't mean to be noisy, I just want to get an understanding of her before I say anything else.”

Garrus snaps out of memory lane, “They uh…had a falling out. He broke up with her and it just ended. She was devastated, like years, devastated.” He shook his head, "I don't know, you think she would be over it by now. I mean, I got over Mayre," He sadly looks to the floor, "Although, Mayre died, so, maybe...it's different since he's alive?"

"If it's years of devastation from the breakup, it must have been really ugly."

Garrus looks at her, "She...she has a lot of trust issues and self-hate. Because of the breakup, she didn't believe I cared about her for a long time after something happened." He thought about Purgatory.

"This doesn't have to deal with your new scars, does it?"

He coughs, "I don't want to get into details, but, yes."

“Well, sounds like she didn’t allow herself to have closure after the years of their breakup, and she can’t let go unless she gets it. Although, I learned a person finds closure within themselves, and not from others."

"So, what's the point in going to her boyfriend?"

"Ex-boyfriend!" Iika said, cutting him off.

He groans, "So, what's the point in going to her 'ex-boyfriend' if she is supposed to find closure within herself?"

"Because, as you said, she was devastated, has low self-worth, and trust issues. She clearly looking for answers, and even if it's obvious, our minds will still obsess over it." She rolls her eyes, "When you told me it was over, I was devastated, and hurt.” She sighs, "Spirits, the things I said." She whispers.

“Yes, like saying ‘I hope any child she has with you die within her womb,’” He didn’t mean to be rude, but he remembers that moment and it still pisses him off.

She looks down sadly, “Yes, I am so sorry for what I said Garrus, I was…not in a good space then.” She sighs, “Look, what I am trying to say is. It's hard. I didn't wake up the next day telling myself 'yup! Garrus broke up with me and now I move on!', no, I was depressed, hurt, and I didn't understand why. Why did we have to end? Was I not good enough? Was I not pretty enough? I was obsessed!"

"I'm sorry Iika, I should have never led you on. I should have ended it when I saw your feelings." He said with regret.

She laughs, "It's okay. If anything, it was a life lesson." Her mandible twitches, "I don't have the same life as her. But something tells me, their breakup has a lot of baggage for her to feel like she does for so long."

He didn't say anything as he thought about everything.

_“You’re scared of me, that's why."_

Slowly his mind was putting the pieces together, he doesn't like that she would be talking to her ex right now, but it was bound to happen. After all the drama about him being scared of her and never wanting to be around her. It's starting to all make sense.

_“Show me...please, show me you're not scared of me,”_

"Garrus, you don’t want this surgery," She looks at him with sadness, "and I could tell. Hide your emotions all you want, but your eyes give you away.” She said as he kept thinking of the past.

“Iika, I don’t know…” He finally said, allowing himself to feel again.

She touches his shoulder and squeezes, “Promise me, you'll talk to her Garrus, see which is true before you make this decision and if she did go back to her ex. Let her go and be happy, you deserve happiness.” She whispers.

“Iika! Spirits woman! Always have to do everything by yourself! Why can’t you just let me do things for you?” A male Turian whines, but Garrus could tell he’s joking.

Iika giggles, “I would, but you are always slow, my love. Plus, I heard about your promotion! I can’t believe you haven’t told me.” She gets up and walks over to him and their heads touch.

“I wanted to! But I just wanted to focus on you and the baby.” He whispers, touching her cheek.

Garrus watches them and his mind starts to picture Luna pregnant with his child and him touching her cheek. Snapping himself out of his thoughts he got up and begins to walk out of the hospital.

“Mr. Vakarian, the doctor would like to see you now.” The receptionist said.

Iika shook her head and gave him a look for him to just leave as she sat there with the father of her child.

“Um…can you cancel it? I don’t think I will be doing it as of yet.” He said, leaving before she could say something to him.

As he was walking towards his apartment he spots Navi talking to some Human man with oversize muscles. Judging from how she was standing, she was infatuated with this human.

Feeling overprotective, he walks over to them.

“Come on, you owe me! Who knows how long I’ll stay on the Citadel?” She said while pouting.

The guy laughs, “Alright fine, fine! Stop giving me that look! Happy Birthday, by the way.” He said and Navi hugs him.

“Thanks,” She grins.

“Navi, who’s this?” Garrus asks, appearing behind her. The guy looks at him a bit surprised.

“Name's James Vega, Alliance military, and you?” He asks, narrowing his eyes as if challenging him.

Garrus crosses his arms, “Garrus Vakarian, Council Spectre,” Garrus narrows his eyes back at the Human. Clearly, he doesn't like that Garrus is around, but why?

Navi was looking in horror between the two as she freaks out about Garrus scaring James away.

“Spectre huh? Pretty impressive. Is there a problem?” He asks, getting a little closer to Navi, and Garrus notices.

Garrus looks at Navi, “Your sister and mother know about this?”

"Yes! Of course! Please, don't make things weird, Garrus!" She complains, glaring up at the older Turian. 

James looks at Navi, “Wait who is he to you?” He asks curiously, with a hint of jealously.

Navi groans, "He's not my boyfriend if that's what your thinking, Mr.Big Arms." She mocks while poking his biceps and he flexes.

"You mock me, but just a moment ago, you wanted me to carry you in em." He laughs, as her eyes were wide and her mouth fell open, "You know if your not careful, you might catch a fly in your mouth," He laughs.

Navi squeals in embarrassment and starts to punch at him with both her hands. He couldn't stop laughing and mocking her upper body strength as her punches were doing nothing to him.

He catches her hand in his, "Stop embarrassing yourself! You're literally not doing anything to me here, Tiny!" He laughs, but when he saw her face, he stops and notices what she is looking at. They were holding hands. Their eyes meet and for a moment before Navi rips her hand away from him.

Garrus coughs, gaining their attention.

“Sorry, forgot we had someone here. So, you're Tiny's older brother?” James asks.

Navi rolls her eyes, “No, this is my sister’s boyfriend.” Navi said, turning to him.

Hearing her introduce him as Luna’s boyfriend made him feel a bit weird and happy all at once. He then calms down knowing that’s not true, and he still needs to find out the outcome of Luna and her ex.

“Damn! Lola is taken by Scars? Missed my chance then,” He teases, and Navi steps on his foot, "Ow! Shit, damn girl!" He shouts, saying something and Garrus can hear the change in language. Navi laughs and says something in that same language, which made James roll his eyes and laugh.

“It's Spanish, Garrus, it's a different Human language! James has been teaching me.” Navi proudly states after seeing Garrus' confused face.

"You're getting good." He smiles at her.

She scratches her mandibles, "I...have a good teacher." She giggles as his face turns slightly red.

"Alright, you win the bet. You got me to blush." He chuckles, trying to stop smiling, but it just wouldn't go away.

"So, you met her family?"

"Just briefly, it was kind of intense. At least with you, things seem normal." He grins. 

"Normal? What do you mean?"

"As if you don't want to cut me up and feed me to the fishes." He shivers, "Not trying to be rude about the Shepards, but I definitely don't want to get on their bad side."

"They can be pretty intense," Garrus chuckles.

Navi rolls her eyes, "Don't talk about my family like that! They are good intense! Sure, they might do some shady things if anything was to happen to me, but I can assure you, Mr.Mako, you're fine!" She giggles at the Mako part, and James rolls his eyes.

"So, Scars, what's it like being a Spectre? I'm curious only, not trying to be one." He quickly said. 

“Scars?” Garrus asks, interrupting them, again.

“Yeah, I give everyone a nickname, helps remember them. Lola, Tiny, Dr.Shepard.” He shrugs.

"Dr.Shepard? What, you don't have a nickname for her?"

James shifts, "Well, I don't want to piss her off. So, I prefer to call her by her title as respect. Also, she's Tiny's mother, I want to say on her good side." He grins. Garrus tilts his head slightly wondering if because he likes Navi. 

"And Lola? I'm going to assume that's 'my girlfriend'?" He asks, a part of him felt nervous saying that, but it also felt good.

James rubs his arms, "Uh...yeah."

"Oh! Tell him! Tell him why you call my older sister, Lola?"

He shook his head, "Nah, I don't think I should."

"Why? Scared?" Garrus asks, almost laughing at the expression of fear and worry on his face. Now, he's really curious as to why.

"She...reminds me of an old friend...whose sister was name Lola and shewashot." He said the last part as fast as possible, but Garrus caught it. He stares at James for a while and gets closer to him. James's heart was beating quickly in fear as his eyes went wide, it was an intense three minutes of Garrus's glare until he laughs.

“Well, I'm flattered you want to remember me, Vega.” He said, patting him on the back, "And you're not wrong. Luna is hot, have seen her ass?" He jokily asks as James was trying to decide if he should answer or not.

Navi glares up at him, "If you answer that, I am going back to my hotel room to watch movies without you." She growls, and James was sweating but gave Garrus a 'look' indicating that yes, he's seen her ass. It's strange, this James is calling his 'girlfriend', Luna, hot and he doesn't feel a ping of jealousy towards him. 

Watching the two chat with one another again, it was painfully obvious the two liked each other. That much be the reason, how can you be jealous of someone when they are pining after someone else?

He could tell James was older. Navi wasn't a kid, and he doesn't see her as such, although she is as short as one, so, he respects her choice as long as James doesn't try anything or hurt her. Following those rules, everything will be fine! Plus, he likes this James Vega, there are signs of cockiness, and the nickname thing is weird, but he could tell it would be fun to talk with Vega sometimes.

Navi glares, “Stop that!” pushing him away, James was patting her head because of something, Garrus wasn't paying attention, but he did chuckle at Navi's attempt at pushing James.

Grumbling in defect, Navi looks at him, “Garrus, what are you doing here, anyway?” She asks, crossing her arms.

“I was making my way over to my apartment, plan on drinking tonight. Then I saw you and Vega here talking, wanted to see what’s going on.”

Instantly, his mind drifts to Luna and he begins to remember she was with her ex, or should he say, boyfriend? 

“Where is Shepard?” He asks.

“Last I saw her, she was on the presidium after having lunch with Kaidan. She looked pretty happy, I hope she got what she needed-”

Garrus tunes her out trying to push negative thoughts away.

_‘There is a good chance she just got closure and was happy about it…right?’_

“-nd she gave me my birthday gift after. It was a broken robot for me to fix up on my own time.” Navi said, smiling at James.

"Oh yeah, you promised me, you were gotta show me it,” James said, laughing.

“I didn’t know it was your birthday, or I would have bought you something,” Garrus said.

Navi giggles, “No, it's okay, I have all the things I need, at this point, I ask for old gadgets and broken tech or gears for me to create something out of.” She shrugs.

Garrus nods, “I think I could find something for you then, but in the meantime, I’ll let you guys do whatever you’re going to do. I need to go to my apartment and shower.”

“If you must know, my sister is at Purgatory!” She gasps when she saw Garrus tense and flinch, “Th...the club of course! She went there to dance and have fun, I think she was going to meet Kasumi and Jack there.” She said nervously, hoping she didn’t trigger him.

He nods, slowly pushing the thought of Purgatory away from his thoughts, and begins to walk away, before turning back around and grabbing James by the collar.

“Hey, what’s the big deal?”

“You hurt her. You sleep with her. You even touch her wrong, and I’ll kill you.” He glares at the Human male, growling in his ears.

James looks genuinely scared, “Whoa, shit! Relax. I thought we're friends here.”

“Oh, my God! Garrus! You’re worse than my sister!” Navi groans in embarrassment.

Garrus pulls away and smirks, “Just want to make sure you’re not trying to take advantage of her.”

“No, no I am not like that.” He looks nervous, “Shit, and I thought Lola was bad.” He whispers under his breath.

Navi grabs his hand and pulls him away, “Come on, let's get out of here, you said you have something to show me! Bye, Garrus!” She yells as they disappear in the crowd.

After watching them leave, Garrus made his way to his apartment to change into evening clothes. Instead of heading to Purgatory, he went to Chora’s Den, because even though it’s a club, the thought of what happened on, Purgatory the station, freaks him out when hearing the name.

Arriving at Chora’s Den, he notices the place changed a bit, more upgraded, but was still a gentlemen’s club. He slowly drank his drink as he thought about the events today.

_“She went to Purgatory.”_

He sighs, hearing the name again gives him chills, and it sort of pisses him off. Even after facing his fear head-on, and even sleeping with it, he still suffers from PTSD. At this point, he feels like old war veterans suffering from the contact war 50 years ago. As if the survivors' guilt wasn’t enough.

“Garrus Vakarian?”

He turns around to see Septimus Oraka, who then takes a seat beside him. Oraka buys a drink from the waitress and turns to look at Garrus.

“Yeah, you’re Septimus Oraka, right?”

He laughs, “Yes, an old friend of your father. I knew you were Castis' boy when I saw the colony lines. I just wanted to make sure.” He finishes.

The music plays, but it wasn’t club music, instead, it was soft sexual music allowing the dancers to dance without losing a lot of energy, while still entertaining the patrons.

The drink for Oraka came and he drinks. As they sat there quietly, an Asari walks over to them and starts to dance for them on the table.

Garrus took another gulp from his drink, enjoying the view. Oraka turns to look at him and crosses his legs.

“You’re drinking like you’ve been heartbroken, Garrus.” He said, taking a sip from our drink.

Garrus looks at the old Turian, “Maybe, maybe not.” He said with boredom.

Oraka stares at the Asari as she does a split and humps the table.

“I know the look Garrus, trust me. You’re not the only one heartbroken.” He whispers.

There was a moment of silence between the two before Garrus spoke up.

“Yes, you can say I’ve been heartbroken,” Garrus whispers.

“I hope it’s not Sha’ira,” He laughs, but Garrus can tell he was serious.

“No, not the Consort. It’s a Human actually.”

He looks shocked, “Really? A Human…have you told your father?” He asks.

Garrus chuckles, “No, and could you not tell him? I just want to have this between us.”

“Of course, although, would like a favor from you. You see, Sha’ira and I had a…relationship together. At least that’s what I thought. I loved her, but she is a Consort, which means I don’t really have her. I asked for her to be “more than she could be”, and she said no.” He drinks, again.

Garrus thought about what happened that night, wondering if he did something wrong. He must have done something wrong, but she was happy after, right?

Oraka sighs, “I…was angry at Sha’ira and did some damage to her reputation. I would like to make amends.”

Garrus turns to him, “How?” He asks.

“There was some secret details about an Elcor diplomat I used. The information was good, but it ruined everything between me and Sha’ira. We can’t be friends anymore, but I want to make things right.”

Garrus stares at him, watching him take another drink as he watches the Asari dancer. In Garrus’s mind, he begins to picture him old and alone angry enough to try to make Luna’s life hell just because she didn’t reciprocate the feelings back.

He nods, “What’s the name of the diplomat?” He asks.

Oraka turns to him and smiles, “Xeltan. You can find him in the Embassies.”

Garrus finishes his drink and nods, “I’ll head over now before the Embassies close for the night.”

As he was walking away Oraka calls out to him.

“Tell Shepard talks for the information, and Garrus don’t worry, your secret is safe with me.”

***

Once Garrus left the Embassies he begins making his way to Sha’ira to tell her the good news.

Walking the grounds he notices her.

She was standing there looking at the water in a short red dress with a slit on the side and black heeled calf-high boots. He was a bit surprised by how revealing she looks right now, as she usually wears clothes that would cover her body.

His heart was racing trying to figure out what to do at this moment, go to her or run? He thought back to Iika and build up his courage to face the truth, is she back with her ex or not? Is she his girlfriend or was that night just to rebuild their friends with benefits relationship?

As he got closer he could hear her softly singing to herself.

_I have a darkness inside of me_

_I was afraid of what you’ll think of me_

He stops and wonders if it was about him or her ex, and without thinking, he starts to walk faster towards her. He needs to know, as fear crept up in his gut, but he kept walking towards her.

_I wanted to run far away from you_

_I was afraid you’ll leave me t_ -

He touches her shoulder and she stops. Turning around she looks at him, shock, with an open mouth.

“Garrus!” She gasps, he didn’t move, just stare into her eyes. He couldn’t stop himself from admiring how beautiful they were.

He coughs when he saw her tense up, “Hey, you’re singing.” He awkwardly said, wanting to slap himself.

She giggles and turns back to the water, “Yeah, I was alone and I couldn’t help myself. I thought I was low enough for no one to hear me.” She said shyly, trying to hide.

“You sound beautiful though, I wish I could hear the rest of it.” He said, touching her back, she smiles at his touch.

“Thank you, but I rather not sing. As I said long ago, my mother is the singer in the family. I prefer to just shoot things.” She whispers, watching as the water sway slowly.

He bumps her shoulder with his, “Come on, please. I can’t sing for shit and prefer to hear other people sing.” He watches the waters, “If I could recall, you sang my mother’s song for me; and you did it in the Mako on Noveria.”

She side-eyed him, “If I could recall you gave me shit for singing it.” She said unapologetically.

He went quiet remembering that day. It bought back memories of his mother and the visit to Sur’Kesh. His mother was singing when they walked in the room, although he never brought it up during the visit, he was happy. Sometimes there were hints of her getting better, but then she would remission.

“I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings. That was not my intention, I was just…joking,” she said quietly, and he snaps out of his daze.

He couldn’t help himself and reach out to touch her cheek, he felt alone, depressed, and upset about what is happening in his life. Noticing her eyes and the emotions behind it as she rubs her cheek against his palm, he begins to suspect…maybe…she didn’t go back to her ex.

“You didn’t hurt my feelings, just thinking is all.” He sighs putting their heads together, “You’ve seen my mother first hand, Luna. I’m just…worried and during that mission, when you sang that song, it brought back memories; and I couldn’t help myself from being upset that one day, I'm going to never hear her sing again.” He whispers.

She closes her eyes, “God, seeing your mother like that was hard, and it was my first time. I’m so sorry Garrus, I wish there was more I could do. Maybe…I could ask my mother to go there see what she could do?” She asks.

Garrus took in his breath, “Would she be willing? I don’t think she would want to part ways with you and Navi.”

“Navi and I are older now, hell it's Navi's seventeenth birthday today. My mother loves you, she would happily help!”

That reassured him, but what can one Human do, anyway? Sure, she was…very knowledgeable when it comes to Turians, but, when they talked to her before, even she was having difficulties with the disease.

He closes his eyes to push the thought away for another day. Right now, he wants to focus on the present, which was Luna.

When he opens his eyes he saw her neck and then his mark. Without a thought, he begins to rub his thumb over it as his heart rapidly beats.

Luna moans feeling herself getting turned on, “Garrus," She whimpers and shivers at his touch. His mark has become so sensitive to her lately. The thought of that night three days ago rushes through her mind.

Without a second thought he kisses the mark, spirits, they were in public, but he could feel his plates shift in desire for her. Her mark on him was becoming warm, tingling. If she wasn't taken he would bend her over and fu-

He backs away, “I’m so sorry, I couldn’t help myself.” He said in a rush feeling ashamed at doing that to her, after all, there is a chance she’s taken.

“What? Garrus, don't be sorry that…” She looks away bashfully, taking in a breath, “That was a huge turn on.” She whispers at him.

With a smile, she got closer to him and leans forward and lightly kisses his mouth, as if hesitant. He was surprised, wasn't she...with...Kaida? Doesn't she want to be with someone happier?! 

She pulls back, “And here I thought, you didn’t want to be with me. So, color me surprised when you kiss your mark on me.” She said.

“Wait, what? Of course, I want to be with you, Luna. I mean unless you mean friends with benefits,” he said, trying to mask his sadness.

She tilts her head, “What? I thought we’re together? You know you’re my boyfriend, I’m your girlfriend. When we were having sex...and then after, it made sense we're together, right? Unless I miss interpreted it.” She said, quietly, while looking around with a questionable look.

Garrus stood there in shock unable to say anything as his mind process what she was saying.

She sighs sadly, “I guess, I did. That must be the reason why you disappeared after I went to the bathroom.” She looks up at him sadness in her eyes, “That doesn’t explain the cold shoulder though, then again, maybe it’s because I-”

Cutting her off, he takes her waist into his arms, and he pulls her into a kiss not able to hold back any longer. There were nowhere and everywhere all at once. He didn’t care if anyone looks at them with disgust or confusion. He couldn’t care less about anyone at this moment, just Luna.

Pulling away and leaning his head on hers as they pant from their intense kissing, he allowed himself to just be happy.

“So, yes, were together? Or was that just a kis-” She whispers and grins at him.

“Yes, yes, Luna, were together!” He laughs, so happy for being wrong. With a squeal, she jumps into his arms and kisses him.

 _'Fuck you, depression.'_ He thought.

Leaning against the railing protecting the lake, he pulls her close, as they kiss deeply. They were still in public, so, it’s not like he was going to rip her clothes off and fuck her there. No, Garrus is a gentleman. Instead, he grabs her amazing ass and squeezes it as she tiptoes into him, and moans, while their tongues dances, desperately missing each other.

“Christ, get a room!” a voice yells and they heard squealing, Garrus knew that squealing.

“Spirits! This is it! This is how my book will end!”

He groans, wanting to throw all of them into the lake behind him.

Looking up he saw none other than Kaira, Chellick, Ridgefield, and Lamont. Luna’s head was pressed against his chest in embarrassment, while his hand was still on her ass as he gave them all a death glare.

“Don’t look at us like that! No one told you to shove your damn tongue down a beautiful voluptuous woman.” Lamont said while eying Luna’s ass.

Garrus growls at him and he notices putting his hands up in the air.

“Easy Lamont, that’s Garrus’ mate,” Chellick said, chuckling at their scared friend decided to stand behind Kaira.

“What are you guys doing here?” Garrus said, unconsciously holding Luna closer to him, Ridgefield notices.

“We’re not here trying to steal her away from you, Garrus.” He laughs, “We heard you were on the Citadel and was wondering if you were available, so we could hang out. I was in the Embassies when I saw you leave and told them where you were.”

“So, we looked out for you after, and found you here with your mate.” Chellick finishes.

Garrus sighs, bringing his head into the crook of her neck, “I’m sorry, Luna, I didn’t expect them to be here.” He whispers for only her to hear.

She giggles, “It is okay.” She whispers back before kissing his mandibles.

“Did she kiss his mandibles, Spirits! She did!” Kaira Squeals.

Garrus looks at them and lazily shoos them away.

Kaira huffs, “Oh hell no! You don’t disappear for months, and come back like it’s nothing! Let’s all go out for dinner!” She jumps in the air clapping.

“Alright, but who's paying?” Lamont said, “I’m a little behind right now, wouldn’t mind if you guys spot me.”

“You blew all of it on women didn’t you?” Kaira grumbles at him, side-eyeing him as he laughs.

“Don’t worry I got you, Lamont,” Ridgefield said.

“So, Garrus, what do you say?” Chellick calls out.

Garrus was still looking at them with a bored expression and lazily started to shoo them away, again.

“Actually, Garrus, food sounds nice right now. All I had today was lunch.” She said, smiling at him, and he groans.

When they enter the restaurant, Luna was impressed by it. It was as if they were under the sea as the fish swam around. The colors were a mixture of gold, white, and red. She was glad the colors weren’t as intrusive to the eyes.

“Like it?” Garrus asks, looking at her with a smile.

She nods, “I’ve been too nice restaurants, but I usually prefer to eat what my mother cooks. This is just beautiful. If anything I’ll just pay for my meal.” She said.

“I’ll pay, you can get the bill next time.” His mandibles twitch in happiness.

“Get a room!” Lamont said before getting a death glare by Kaira.

Turning back to them Kaira claps her hand together, “So? How long?” She asks.

“We're not answering any of your questions to put in your book,” Garrus said, rolling his eyes while his arm lays on the back of Luna’s chair. He leans back with no care in the world, genuinely happy to be here with his friends and official girlfriend.

As Garrus and Kaira went back and forth, Luna felt a tap on her shoulder, turning to see who it was she saw it was Ridgefield.

“I want to say, thank you.” He whispers to her.

She gave him an odd look, “Thank you?” She asks.

He smiles, looking at Garrus, “He looks happier. I’m sure there is a story for his scars on his face, but he looks happy. I do wonder if it’s because of you or because he finally has allowed himself to be happy.” He sat back, wondering.

Luna looks back at Garrus having a very interesting debate with Kaira about her book, and how she needs to relax.

“I don’t know. I do hope, he doesn’t rely on me to keep him happy. I’ve been down that rabbit hole once before and it led me to not rely on myself to be happy.”

“If you have the chance I say to talk to him. A healthy relationship relies on communication.”

Luna looks at him and smiles, “Wise words from a wise man.” She said, and he chuckles.

When the waitress came to ask for their order, Luna stares at the menu and wonder if she should order a dextro meal. Looking at the table she bit her lips, before deciding that she wouldn’t be afraid to be herself. She heard this meal was pretty good and she wanted to try it.

“Can I have a Laiju,” The two Turians at the table stared at her in shock, and the waitress looks at her confused.

“I’m sorry, that’s made for dextro based species only.” She said, softly.

“I know and it’s okay. I can eat dextro base.” Luna smiles and the waitress walks away in a daze. The whole table was quiet and it made Luna nervous making her regret her decision.

Garrus moves a hair from her face, “Your mom never made Laiju before? And here I thought she was the best cook ever.” He teases, trying to break the tension.

Luna pokes his mandible, “You’ve had my mother’s cooking, don’t be so coy. She doesn’t know all the Turian meals. Sometimes, she makes her own kind of food, of course, they are all delicious.” She smiles, happy for him to break the tense atmosphere.

"All delicious? Your mom is just a super cook?" Chellick asks.

Luna chuckles, "Well, when I was younger there were multiple times it was hit or miss, please don't tell her! Sadly, I was the guinea pig, and I had to be the one to test the dextro base food, to see if they are good or not." Luna shrugs. 

"That's amazing you can eat what we can eat!" Kaira said, clapping in excitement. 

"Can't eat everything though, Turians have natural sharp teeth to bite and chew into meat my human teeth could not do, but yes. I can eat things you guys can."

"Are you sure you can't? We all see Garrus' mark, girl you could bite!" Lamont laughs, and Kaira glares at him.

"Yeah, but it's not a normal thing," She laughs, "Let's just say I can be a freak in bed, but it's okay Garrus loves it." She winks. Garrus narrows his eyes at her trying to stop his twitching mandibles, as Lamont goes into hyperdrive asking all sorts of questions.

They ask more questions about her situation on how she's able to eat levo and dextro while Lamont kept asking about their positions and is there any chaffing. Luna wasn’t ready to tell them about how she and her mother was able to eat both levo and dextro, but she did say a few words about their sex life, knowing for sure she's going to get punished in the future, and hopes for it. 

When the food did come she sighs noticing the food was levo base and it wasn’t Laiju. Kaira starts complaining to the waitress for being rude and not listening to the customer, as the waitress kept defending herself. Ridgefield said he was sorry for this happening, and Chelliak tries to calm his mate down.

“Want some of mine?” Garrus whispers to Luna as Kaira continues to complain, she smiles and takes her fork then tastes some of his food.

Instantly, everything stops, and everyone starts to stare.

_"Do you think she's going to die?"_

_"A Human eating dextro? How weird."_

Taking a deep breath she kept eating, ignoring the whispers from the people around them. Kaira was about to start telling people to mind their business when Luna spoke.

“T-this is really good, Garrus, here try some.” She picks some up and he opens his mouth taking the food off the fork.

_"What a freak,"_

_"Okay, she's differently not Human."_

He nods, “It is pretty good,” He said, just looking at her and could see the worry in her eyes, "Don't be afraid to be who are." He whispers to her.

“But, maybe I sho-” She stops and looks down in shame, hoping her hair will hide her from people looking at her like some freak, some...monster.

_"Should she even be here?"_

_"Do you think she's some kind of experimental monster? I heard Humans love to experiment on their kind."_

Tears were starting to form when she could hear them clearly. Garrus grabs her chin and she looks at him as a tear fell from her eye.

“Trust me," He moves a bit of hair from her face, "have some more. It tastes really good.” He said, she looks into his eyes and felt confident again. Not caring anymore what people think, she took another bite of his food.

***

Luna walks out of the shower feeling fresh and clean from the day’s events. Walking over to Garrus who sitting down watching a comedy skit, while Urz was in his pet bed sleeping. Smiling, she pets the top of the varren's head before heading over to Garrus and sitting on his lap.

“Joker got you hooked on comedy, didn’t he?” She said, leaning back on him. He could smell his soap on her, but mainly her unique scent.

He laughs, “Yes, actually, there are some really good comedians in the galaxy.” He said, wrapping his arms around her.

They sat there watching the vid and laughing at the silliness. Garrus begin to think about Kaidan, he knows nothing really happened, but he was curious, why did she want to meet with him?

“Hey, Luna.”

“Hmm?”

“Why did you have a lunch date with Kaidan?” He asks.

She bends her head to look up at him, “How do you know I went to see Kaidan?” She asks.

He sighs, “I overheard your conversation with him when you went to the bathroom. I…thought the worst and left; and I'm just wondering why you went on a lunch date with Kaidan? How did it go? I mean, you don’t have to tell me anything. It’s just the nagging won't go away in my head.” He nervously said rubbing his neck.

She looks at him with sadness, “Garrus, ” 

He sighs and looks away, "I'm sorry...it's just the constant comparing. Knowing Kaidan was always going to be number 1? I know we’re together now, but, I'm not going lie, Luna, I still have a minuscule feeling you’ll leave me for him” He said in hesitation.

Sighs and goes quiet not looking at him; he just sat their confused and wondering if he pissed her off by asking about Kaidan.

"Luna..."

"I'm sorry," she whispers. At first, he thought she was breaking up with him, and it hasn't even been a day! Before he could get angry and depressed, she looks him in the eyes and spoke again.

"I'm sorry for how I acted in the past. I shouldn’t have compared you to Kaidan.” She said.

He pulls her tighter in his arms, “It's okay. I just need to get over it.” he whispers.

“No, you shouldn’t have to 'get over it'. I should have trusted you and not compared you to Kaidan. I shouldn't have forced this narrative of ‘I’m going to reject him, before he rejects me, just like Kaidan did.’ It was wrong, Garrus because you’re not Kaidan. You didn’t run away from me after everything happened. Even with your fear, you wanted to stay by my side through it all.” She said with a small smile on her face.

"Yeah, I know. Spirits, it was a headache dealing with you, sometimes." He jokes and laughs after she slaps his arm.

"Hush!" She pouts.

He moves some of the hair from her face, “I'm glad I didn't back down.” He said and she looks at him, “I know this is who you are, I know it will never change, and I accept that. I’ll always be there for you, I promise.”

She looks away, "Do...do you mean...it? Because, I've been burned from promises and....and," tears begin to fall, trying to toughen up, but the memories of Kaidan promising rushes in her mind.

Garrus takes her chin, "My father taught me, 'a Turian always keeps his promise.'" He said, touching her head with his.

She sniffs, “Garrus…thank you...you don’t know how much that means to me. You don’t know how much you mean to me. I…I…”

“I love you?”

She pauses wide-eyed, and he burst out laughing.

She punches him, “Garrus!”

“Damn, almost got you to say it!” He laughs harder.

She pouts, “Damn it, Garrus! This is serious!” She sniffs, wipes her nose, and starts to laugh, “God…” She stops laughing as he chuckles.

“One day you’re going to say it to me, I can see it.” He grins and she rolls her eyes.

“I was going to say, I care deeply for you, Garrus, and I am happy you are in my life.” She smiles and leans forward, giving him a peck his mouth. When she pulls back, she starts touching his mandibles, and he could feel the warmth of her hands.

She begins to hum his mother's sound, unconsciously and he listens not wanting to interrupt. His heart was beating, slow, so slow he could feel each beat. Time seems to have shifted and something has changed. When she started to draw on his chest with her smile, he knew what changed.

“I love you,” He said with ease.

She laughs, “Garrus, you’re such a try-hard!” She rolls her eyes and looks at him, noticing his serious face, “Garrus?”

He holds her cheek, his mandible twitches, “I love you,” he said again.

She stares at him and starts to bite her fingers like crazy. When he saw the blood from the ripped skin he grabs her hands.

She swallows, “Garrus, I…I can’t say it back. I’m not ready.” She whispers, in fear of hurting him.

“I know, I wasn’t expecting you to say it to me. If anything, I don’t need you to say it to me. I just want you to know that I love you.” He said again, looking her in her eyes.

She nods, "just know, I'm not perfect. I will make mistakes, and I will disappoint you, sometimes...” She trails off quietly, leaning on his chest and hearing his heartbeat, breathing in his scent.

He chuckles, “You’re not perfect,” he wraps his arms around her waist, “But you are special.” He whispers before resting his chin on the top of her head.

They start to watch a movie with Blasto. Luna was laying her head on Garrus' lap, while he was thinking of a very real issue that could cause problems in the future, his depression. 

_'You're worthless and a burden to Luna, you don’t deserve happiness’_

"Hey..."He starts.

"Hmm?" She cringes at the 'Hanar Spectre' and rolls her eyes at the absurdity of the scene.

He sighs, “I just want to make sure." He sighs, again, and rubs his fringe, "I just want to make sure you know what I am bringing into this relationship, besides the positives, there are negatives...like my depression."

_‘You don't deserve Luna’_

She nods and smiles, "I know, silly, and it won't scare me away!" She pokes him, "If you're going to fight for me, I'm going to fight for you. Not going to get upstaged by a Spectre," She sticks her tongue out. He laughs and was happy for her giving him the confidence to know she's okay with him being this way.

He stops laughing, "There…are going to be times, I will have my lows, Luna. And, I might become a burden on you. If that ever happens...” He stops, stroking her head. Wincing at the harsh thoughts and he tries to push it away.

_'The Galaxy would be better without you, Garrus, just kill yourself.'_

“Well one, I'm stubborn, so, your depression is not going to scare me away, Garrus, and two, you won't become a 'burden'. I know what it’s like to be depressed. But, as long as we're there for each other when the going gets tough, I know we'll be fine.”

"Thanks, I needed that. You're right."

"But! I won't allow you to just...not do something about it. You need to work on your depression and not allow it to overtake you. I will fight for you, Garrus, but I need you to fight for yourself as well. If I could do it, you can do it." She smiles.

"Yeah, I've been avoiding Kelly, but I won't do it anymore. As you said, I need to fight for myself."

"Good, because I still have my own damn issues, and will need support. Family and friends are great, but I want Garrus." She grins and kisses his mouth.

"And I want Luna." He whispers. 

“Promise me, that you will never hide your feelings from me, Garrus.” She said, looking into his eyes, determinedly.

He hesitates as doubt begins to form in his head, looking at her. Should, he promise this? Is this right? Maybe, they shouldn’t be together. He doesn’t deserve her. After today it’s clear he doesn’t trust her. Trust is important, Garrus! Your fucking horrible, Garrus! Didn’t you wish to ruin her relationship, Garrus?

_'Don't believe her, Garrus! She's lying to you, she doesn't care about you! She's pitying you! She wants to be with Kai-’_

“Garrus,” She said, touching his twitching mandibles.

He blinks a few times before looking at her. Not able to say anything, he coughs and looks away from her. He felt so heavy as if everything is weighing on him.

But she was still waiting and he saw, swallowing, he holds her tightly and touches her head with his. Then closes his eyes, remembering about fighting for himself, and finally, the thoughts quiet themselves.

“I’ll try to be more open.” He finally said.

She shook her head, “No, I want you to promise me, Garrus.” She whispers.

He pulls his head back, “I promise," He said looking into her eyes, "but you have to promise me that you won't push me away.”

She smiles warmly, “I promise to be open with you, and to not push you away.” She softly said.

“I promise to be open with you and to not push you away.” He repeats.

They kiss as if to seal the deal.

An hour pass by as the movie kept playing. Garrus was falling asleep, while Luna was sleeping on the couch, facing away from the vid.

With a yawn, he stands up and picks her up bridal style. The vid automatically shuts off when he begins walking upstairs. When they got to his bed, he lays her down and begins to take off his clothes. A giggle was heard, and he stops halfway through to see Luna looking at him.

“Did I wake you?” He yawns, using his hand to cover his mouth.

“No,” She sticks her tongue out at him, "Kinda," She giggled before taking off her clothes and going under the sheets. The lights came off and she lays on her side while Garrus, joins her under the covers, and wraps his arms around her; his chin on top of her head.

Luna bite at her fingers, before sighing, "Garrus, can we talk about something?" 

He inhales and groans, “Okay, what would you like to talk about, Luna?” he asks lazily already falling asleep; she pouts again and lightly slaps his arm that’s around her to wake him up.

Nervously, she reaches her hand up to her mouth to bite at her finger, but Garrus stops her. To stop her, he entwines their hand.

She sighs and after a few minutes went by, Luna turns her body towards him.

“Garrus,” she whispers, and his closed eyes open up to look at her. She reaches to touch the scars on his face, gently.

He playfully went to bite her, and she quickly pulls her hand away, glaring at him.

“Garrus!” She shouts, and he laughs.

Sliding his hand towards her ass he squeezes, “What is it, beautiful?” He asks.

Becoming bashful at him calling her beautiful, she hides her face into his chest. She hates singing and believes she just wasn’t as good as her mother. But, Garrus enjoys her singing and…she wanted to sing for him…finish the song she was singing earlier that he wanted to hear.

She felt him nuzzle her, and she giggles.

“Would you stop being cute and silly? A man is trying to sleep!” He laughs. When she up looks at him seriously, he stops laughing.

She took a breath, “Garrus, I…I want to give you something.” She whispers, nervously.

He moves some hair out of her face and looks deeply into her eyes.

“What do you want to give me, Luna?” He asks.

She took a deep breath and begin to sing,

_I have a darkness inside of me_

_I was afraid of what you’ll think of me_

_I wanted to run far away from you_

_I was afraid you’ll leave me to_

_But then you stayed and cared for me_

_I know I hurt you and I’m truly sorry_

_But can you see my warm feelings for you_

_In_

_Me_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally, they are together! After 26 Chapters, they are officially together! (Technically it was the last chapter, but it was solidified this chapter LOL)
> 
> Also! Sorry, she's so...emotional. I know Canon Shep is this, hardass badass who cries for nothing...but I can't help it. ;-;


	27. Make Father Proud

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone wants to make their father proud, but at what cost?

"Fuck..." Garrus grunts as he pounds deep inside Luna, she was laying on the bed as her legs were tied in a frogtie position, bounding her ankle-to-thigh, while her arms were tied behind her back. Her mouth was gagged with a ball as she moans loudly, fighting her restains. 

She was panting and shaking as another orgasm hits her hard making her scream for her, Sir. He looks down and laughs, fucking her harder as the vibrator on her clit continues to build up her pleasure again.

"Getting tired?" He asks, using his talons to rub against her stomach causing it to bleed. She mumbles and nods, her eyes half shut as saliva drips from her ball gag. Garrus shook his head, and turns the vibrator on high settings, causing her to scream; her body shivers as her sensitive clit gets fucked by this device. 

Her body was wet and sweaty, her heart was pounding from the excessive amount of pleasure and pain her body is going through, and she felt so exhausted from coming too much. But her Sir wouldn't let up, instead, he relishes at the fact she was coming so much to him. 

From her eyes, she could see him forcing himself from coming himself as she comes for the fifth time. 

She screams and holds her bondage tight as another wave hit her. Her powers push into him, once again, and this time he couldn't fight back. Leaning down, he grabs the sheets under her and pounds into her hard. It wasn't long before he groans in desire, filling her tight hole with his come.

He lays on top of her as they both pant. The vibrator still at work on her clit, causing her to groans and whisper, "Lupe," to which he understood.

Pulling away from her, he takes the vibrator off her clit, and shut it off. He stood there, eyeing his handy work with a chuckle. 

Luna's legs were wide open in their frogtie bound, and her pussy drips his cum onto the floor. Her hair was a mess on the bed, her long curls everywhere, and she was shaking while looking at him with her black eyes. 

"You look sexy like this." He said as he continues to record her with his visor. She rolls her eyes, and tries to close her legs, but was too weak. When she starts to call his name, he sighs, wishing the galaxy could fix it's own damn problems so he could continue having his fun with his Luna. 

Instead of taking the gag from her mouth first, he went for her retrains. Luna kept talking and mumbling, but he chuckles. 

"I rather keep you quiet while I work." He said, and she glares at him. With one of her legs releases, Luna kicks into the air at his face, which he dodges.

"You want to get punished, again? I could make you come for me six more times if you want?" He said, sternly, and she whimpers a no, "Good girl," he said, before releasing her other leg.

Standing up, he stretches and looks around. Luna eyes him, wondering why he didn't release her arms and gag. Her legs felt like jelly, so getting up wasn't going to be easy. When he walked away, she calls out for him in a huff. 

It wasn't until five minutes later, he came back, chuckling, with a rag. 

"Are you going to be good?"

She nods, and he starts to clean her up. She lays there and enjoys his touch, smiling at his kindness.

_"I love you,"_

She turns to look at him, he was so concentrated and focus on his task. It always made her giggle how much he loves details. Probably why he loves calibrating. 

He turns to look at in the eyes and his mandibles twitch in a way that made her heartbeat fast. 

"I wish we could stay here forever," he whispers and lay down next to her. Pushing her head towards him, she 'pecks' his mouth with the gag, and he chuckles. Releasing her arms and removing the gag, he tosses them aside and holds her close to him.

Not saying a word, she rests her head on his chest and listens to his beating heart, and they fell asleep. After their small nap, Luna gets off of Garrus and yawn.

“Come on, Garrus, we need to head to the ship.”

He grumbles and turns on his side, she pouts, crossing her arms. Using as much strength as she could, she pulls at him.

He didn’t move much.

He chuckles, “Trying to get me to move again? Haven’t we learned already, I am a much heavier person than you?” He mumbles out to her, eye closed.

She groans, “Garrus! Come on! Stop being stubborn and let’s go! Do I need to use my biotics!?” She shouts.

After more pulling, and pouting, Garrus finally gets up.

“Fine, only because I don’t want you to embarrass yourself anymore.” He laughs, and she pouts. Taking her chin he kisses her lips.

“I hate you.”

“What? Is that an ‘I love you’?” He jokes and she pushes him before walking away.

“I hate you!” She yells out and she enters the bathroom upstairs.

Once she was gone, Garrus mandibles twitch, “I love you.” He whispers.

***

“No, Navi. James cannot join us. Isn’t he Alliance?” She asks in an annoyed tone. Right now, she and Garrus were walking to the Normandy with Urz in toll.

Garrus was listening to her conversation with Navi.

“Yes, but he wants to learn under you!” Navi shouts.

She sighs, “Navi, that doesn’t make any sense. Give me the real reason why you want James to come aboard my ship.” She messes with her hair.

Navi took a deep breath, “He’s on leave at the moment, and I thought it would be nice to have him along.” She said.

“Look, I understand you want to spend time with your boyfriend, but that simply can’t happen,” Luna said.

Navi gasps, “James isn’t my boyfriend!” She quickly states.

“Fine, your friend, James, cannot join us because I am on the Alliance shit list.” She said.

Navi sighs, “I forgot, sorry.” She said sadly.

Luna frowns, feeling bad for being the reason why Navi couldn’t hang out with her ‘boyfriend’. Knowing this is going to hurt her pride she said the following.

“After the mission, I would talk with the Alliance to see if I could get off their shit list without them calling for my head. Okay?”

Navi squeals, “Thank you, Luna. You are the best!”

“Yeah, sure. I’ll see you on the ship.” She said, rolling her eyes and smiling.

“Oh, you didn't know? I’m going to stay on the Citadel with James.” Navi said, innocently.

“What!?”

Navi laughs, “Joking! See you on the ship!” She shouts before ending the call.

“Navi! Damn it.” She groans in annoyance.

While whispering words of death towards James, she felt Garrus wrap his arm around her waist.

“Want to hunt for James and see if we could make him disappear?” He asks with amusement.

Luna giggled, “No, it’s okay. Mom and I met James yesterday. He’s funny, and I like him. Cocky? Yes, but he means well.” She said, shrugging.

“I talked to him as well yesterday. He seems to like Navi, and he’s not so bad.”

“Nicknamed me, Lola. Said I reminded him of his friend’s hot sister.” She laughs, “Navi was not happy about that one!”

He laughs, “I heard. He called me scars. I think it fits.”

She smiles, “Can I go on the record to say, your scars are sexy.” She said.

His brow plates raise, “Damn, looks like you’re going to have to use your biotics me again so I can keep looking sexy for you.” He jokes, but instantly regrets it and looks to see if she was hurt by the joke.

She punches his arm, “Shut up. Maybe, I should use my biotics on you again.” She laughs, and he smiles, happy that they could joke about their past pain.

When everything was quiet, Garrus starts to wonder, how the hell she is going to make amends with the Alliance.

“So, how will you talk to the Alliance to get back on their good sides?”

She looks at him, “Have you forgotten the boss I have? He knows how to play the politics of the galaxy. It’s going to cost me, but for my sister, I’ll put away my pride and make her happy.” She smiles.

“Boss? I thought you hate the word boss?” He asks.

She sighs, “I used to hate the word boss. The reason for that was because, right before we escape the Batarian slave ship, I was getting experimented on, again. This,” she points to her neck where a deep stab wound was, “is a stab wound I was left with by my ‘master’, right before I killed him. He was called boss, so whenever I heard it I would…have a mental break.” She said, Garrus bends and kisses it softly not caring that some people saw.

“I hate that you had to go through so much.”

She smiles, “Yeah, but I’m learning to accept it. No more hiding from the truth.” She said.

“By the way, your boss is pretty powerful. It’s like he could get you out of anything you wanted.”

“Well, I mean, not anything." She shrugs, "For example, something like me blowing up a station or Mass Relay? No."

"Why a Mass Relay? And how would you even blow up a Mass Relay?" He asks, trying to picture blowing up a fucking Mass Relay!

"Look, it's just something I thought about as a teen that...had involved Batarians."

"What?" He stops moving and looks at her in horror.

"And I would have...used an asteroid." She said, looking everywhere besides him. Garrus blinks momentarily, staring at her with his mouth open.

"Wow...,"

"I was a really fucked up kid, what can I say?" She blinks, innocently at him.

He shook his head, "Alright, definitely need to keep an eye on you." He said under his breath.

She rolls her eyes, "I was a kid! I have grown since then. Plus, Uvek has...changed my mind on somethings," She grumbles.

"I knew you would start to like him," He grins.

"Anyway! If it's something like me stealing information, like the Normandy's plans, The Shadow Broker could play to the politics of the Alliance. Doesn’t mean I get off scot-free, of course. Most likely they will have some bullshit I need to do to clear my name though.” She groans and crosses her arms. They begin to walk away, not wanting to just stand around talking for everyone to hear.

“If you could have done this, why didn’t you do it before?”

“I guess, because of my pride. My dislike for the Alliance started young, and after I had to be discharged, I’ll be damn to be nice to them.” She grumbles.

“If you dislike the Alliance before you even joined, why join?”

She smiles sadly, “To honor my father. He was everything to me, and I wanted to make an impression for him. My father’s family was always military, and I wanted to make him proud, you know?”

Garrus stares ahead of them thinking of his father and their relationship. Looking at his expression, Luna touches his arm and gave him a small smile.

“How’re things with your father?” She asks.

He sighs, “We still aren’t close. We’re trying though,” his mandibles twitch, “Although, once he figures out my girlfriend is a Human. Shit…” He huffs in annoyance.

Luna nervously bites her fingers, and Garrus saw. Taking her hand he starts to look at them noticing badly chewed the skin around the fingers were.

“Luna,” he starts.

She groans, “I know, and it’s not going to stop. Trust me, I’ve tried. It’s called 'Dermatophagia', I think that's the name. It's where the person would gnaw at their skin, for me, it’s the fingers. Sometimes I would do it because I am nervous, other times just randomly.” She said.

He holds her hand tightly, “Well, stop being nervous, okay? I don’t really care about what my father thinks, because I love you.”

She was speechless for a moment before grabbing his arm and hiding her face in it, as they walk and he laughs.

“Hey, guess what? I love you, Luna.” He repeats.

She squeals in annoyance, “Stop!” She mumbles in his arm, but he heard her giggling.

“Spectre Garrus Vakarian?”

Garrus looks up to see a brown skin woman and short hair looking at them. Luna pulls away from his arms and gives this woman a look of annoyance for interrupting their cute couple moment.

“Yes?” Garrus asks.

“My name is Khalisah al-Jilani, and I would like to ask you some questions for my show.” She said.

Garrus sighs, “I don’t really want to talk at the moment,” he states, already feeling weird about it.

“It’s just a few questions, Spectre unless being in the presence of a human bothers you?” She asks a small smirk on her face.

Luna glares, “Can you not start shit here? I would like a moment of peace with my boyfriend before we head out on our mission.” She complains. 

Khalisah narrows her eyes at Luna, “Oh you must be the Human lover of Spectre Garrus,” She looks at him, “Is this a ploy to have Humans like you Spectre?” She asks.

Garrus glares, “Why would it be a ploy? She’s my girlfriend because I care about her. Not because of some political gain.” He said, rolling his eyes.

“Then you wouldn’t mind some questions?” She asks.

“Fine, ask your questions,” Garrus said.

“Many Humans believe Turians are using their powers to keep us down. Do you believe this is true, Spectre?”

“No, Turians do not seek to keep Humans down. Yes, we view things differently, but that’s mainly because we have different cultures. Simples as that.” He said respectfully, inside he was annoyed by the question.

“I see, I guess you can say that. Spectre, there have been some rumors about a Turian being the reason why a Human Spectre was denied. Is this true? Was a Turian the reason why Humanity was denied Spectreship?” She asks.

Garrus was a little taken aback and had to think about his answer. He didn’t want to piss off the Council and admit what Saren, their favorite Spectre, has done. He also didn’t want to put himself under hot water, he loves the heat, but too much could burn.

“Why the hell does that matter so much? Maybe, Humanity should get its head out of its ass and get over itself. We don’t need to be ‘Spectres’ to show the galaxy what we can do!” Luna shouts standing in front of Garrus.

“Humanity deserves to be represented by one of the highest status known in this galaxy. Simply ‘showing the galaxy what we can do’ is not enough.” She argues.

Luna crosses her arms, “So what you are saying is, were weak and useless without a title.”

Khalisah gasps, “What? No!”

“It’s clear that’s what you mean. We need to be babied by the other species because we don’t know how to handle things on our own. How could a Human reporter say that about us? Even my Turian boyfriend sees that Humans are very capable and without titles!”

“I agree! Have you seen the Alliance military? Great respect to the individuals that save and protect the Humans of this galaxy. One Human I know of greatly is David Anderson.” Garrus finishes.

Khalisah stares at them wide-eyed, not able to say anything.

“Any more questions?” Garrus asks, stopping himself from laughing at her face.

“I…uh…no. Spectre Garrus Vakarian! That’s all for today everyone.” She said with a sweet smile to the camera. Once it was shut off, she glares at them before walking away grumbling.

Garrus chuckles, “That was good. Hope it wasn’t too forced” He said.

Luna rolls her eyes, “She deserved it. The shit she was asking. She was trying to set you up, that bitch.” She said, taking his hand and starts walking.

“Just glad she didn’t ask about who you were.”

“Hey, my ass is innocent.” She jokes.

“Your ass is not innocent, it’s why I need to spank it multiple times just to get it under control.” He jokes and she sticks her tongue out at him.

“Should have told Urz to bite her, right boy!?” She calls out to the Varren and he barks.

Garrus rolls his eyes, “My Varren isn’t something you could use on civilians,” he said, discreetly slapping her ass.

She gasps, “Garrus!” She squeals and slaps his chest, laughing.

Urz barks and tries to run towards something, but Garrus held his leash.

“No boy gotta stay by me.” He said and the Varren whines but follows.

Luna giggles, “How the hell did you manage to get C-Sec to allow a Varren on the Citadel?”

He chuckles, “One, I’m a Spectre, so I could do whatever the fuck I want. Two, He’s Urz, and that’s all I need.”

“Oh yeah? Can do whatever the fuck you want?” She smirks.

“Whatever the fuck I want,” he whispers before slapping her ass again, and she gasps.

“Garrus! Were in public.”

“I’m a Spectre, just told you I could do whatever the fuck I want.” He laughs.

“Seriously though, how?”

“I was serious about being a Spectre and getting it approved. Doesn’t help that Varren pups are used for entertainment.” He said looking forward.

Luna was confused, “Entertainment?” She wonders out loud.

“Yes, entertainment. As in, they would breed them and showcase them to people. Some people spend top credits to be with and hold a Varren pup. It never occurred to me, until I was asked if I was going to do that by an Officer.”

“So, what happens to the pups when they get big? I’ve never seen any around.”

His looks a little sad, “What do you think happens when they get big?” He asks quietly. 

She didn’t say anything, knowing what they did. Varrens weren’t going extent any time soon, but that’s pretty cruel.

“Cute sells.” She whispers.

“Shepard?”

They turn around to see a Drell looking at them, a smile presented on his face as he walks over to them.

“Thane? Wow, I never expected to see you.” Luna said, her eyes full of excitement.

Garrus narrows his eyes hearing her mentor’s name. Learning it was a Drell made him feel weirdly…jealous. Years ago he heard some Human females talk about how handsome Drell men were. Unlike Turians, Drells have lips, and a soft body similar to Human men while Turians were hard and lack lips.

Seeing how happy she was talking to him didn’t sit well with him. He remembers the times she would talk about him, how her eyes would glow. She had feelings for this Drell before, but what about now?

“This is my boyfriend, Garrus Vakarian. Since he’s a Spectre, he could help.” She states a smile on her face.

Garrus felt guilty after being introduced as her boyfriend. Here he was getting jealous, not trusting Luna to want to be with him. After everything they have been through, spirits, he needs to get used to being with a Human.

_“Is this a ploy to have Humans like you?”_

That damn reporter, pulling all the strings of his insecurities.

“Garrus!” Luna shouts, slapping his arm.

“What?” He asks in confusion.

She rolls her eyes, “Thane was hoping you could help him stop his son. You have more pull as a Spectre, and with C-Sec, to get some guy who hired his son to kill some racist politician.” She explains.

Garrus looks back at the Drell, “Um…yeah, I could do that.” He said, pushing his dark thoughts away.

Reaching C-Sec office, Garrus was watching them talk as they walk in front of him. They were side by side and she was laughing while he was smiling at her. Something in the Drell’s eyes told him, he cares about her.

Did they have a romantic history?

Kaira was sitting down again typing away when she looks up to see Garrus. Shooting up from her chair she rushes over to him.

“Garrus! Spirits, save me from the paperwork!”

He laughs, “Sorry, I can’t. I am hoping to speak to Commander Bailey?”

She whines and walks over to her desk, “Hello, Commander? Hi, Spectre Garrus wishes to speak with you, said it was urgent.” She winks at him, “Yup, sending him in right away.”

“Thanks, Kaira.”

She looks over to see Luna grinning at Thane, “Um…who’s that?”

Garrus groans silently, “Her mentor,” He grumbles and Kaira notices.

She gasps, “Oh…My! This is perfect for my book!”

Garrus covers her mouth before she yells out some wild ass idea that would cause some problems.

“Kaira, please, I don’t care what you’re going to write about, just don’t yell the idea.” He quickly said under his breath to her.

She nods and he let go of her mouth, “All I was going to say is that, you shouldn’t let your insecurities get the better of you, Garrus. I know she cares for you. This mentor of hers is just that, a mentor. Trust her.” Kaira said before walking back over to her desk.

Looking back at the duo, Garrus sighs as Luna’s eyes were so…happy.

Walking inside the office they saw Commander Bailey typing away, looking bored.

“Just make sure to hit him a little, you have to show them who’s in control to get what you want sometimes,” Bailey said as he spoke to one of his officers.

“Commander, good to see you again.” Garrus starts, “’ make sure to hit him a little?’” Garrus asks a little amazed a Commander is going that far, back in his C-Sec days, with his father, which was highly forbidden.

“It’s good to see you as well, Spectre.” He said with a small smile, “Just some criminal that won’t speak up. There have been some child trafficking lately, and I want to put an end to it. If it means having to beat someone to get the answer, then so be it. Being nice can only get you so far.” He said, crossing his hands on his desk at the Spectre.

Garrus nods, “Don’t worry, I understand. Hope you find the bastards doing it. I would offer to help, but I have something do to, and I trust you could get the job done.” He said.

“Oh, don’t worry, the job will be done. Either way, Kaira said you needed something urgently?” Bailey asks.

“Right, we're looking for a young Drell, have anything that could be of interest?” Garrus asks.

“If you could give me a moment,” He begins to search through his data, “Yes, a kid name mouse was seen talking to a young Drell.”

“Mouse, I know of him,” Thane said.

Luna chuckles, “Let me guess, a duck kid?” she asks.

He nods, “Where could we find him?” He asks, turning towards Bailey.

“Last time I check he was near Rodman Expedition.” He said and they left his office.

Once they made it to Rodman Expedition, they saw a teen boy standing there talking on his Omni-tool.

“Yeah, I could do that, no problem.” He said to the person he is talking to.

Luna coughs and touches his shoulder, “Hey, are you Mouse?” She asks.

He turns around looking annoyed before noticing Thane.

“Thane, what are you doing here?” He asks in surprise.

“Looking for a young Drell, Mouse, have you seen him?” He asks.

Mouse thought for a moment, “I could tell you, but I can’t. The people I work for would kill me if I do.” He said, crossing his arms. “You were good to me so many times, but…I’m not going to die for you.” He said.

Luna stares at him and remembers the times working under Thane, “Here’s the deal kid, we need that information. You must tell us who this Drell is working for. If tell us, I’ll make sure you are protected and looked after. Trust me.” She said softly a smile on her face.

Mouse stares at her for a moment weighing his options, “I don’t know,” he said, rubbing his neck whispering about having to stay low if he were to give out the details.

Luna touches his shoulder working her charm, “Hey, look, I know how hard it can be to be poor, and doing what needs to be done to get money. I know what it’s like to work for criminals.”

Mouse bit his lips and sighs, “Yeah, it can be pretty hard.” He said, looking down.

She gave him five thousand credits and he looks at her shocked, she smiles.

“For the information, and, if you keep your eyes and ears open for me. I will pay you well, and keep you safe. Again, trust me, I have my ways of protecting my people.” She said, patting his shoulder.

His eyes beamed and he grins, “Alright, yes, he came to me and said he wanted a job. I thought since he’s connected to Thane, why not? I looked through some contacts to see who would hire him and it was Elias Kelham.”

Garrus crosses his arms, “Elias Kelham, he’s some small-time criminal that got big after some infighting. It’s going to be hard to get to him, the guy has a lot of lawyers.” He said, rolling his eyes in annoyance.

Luna chuckles, “And here I thought Spectre's can do whatever the fuck they want,” Luna teases, and Garrus laughs.

“I said he has a lot of lawyers, not that I can’t deal with him,” He smirks, “Going to need Bailey though to bring him in.” He said before making a call to the Commander.

Luna turns back to Mouse, “Look kid if anyone tries anything with you tell them Lunaria Shepard is your employer now. They would think twice about harming you.”

He was still hesitant but nods, “Alright, thanks.” He said.

“You’ve become very formidable, Shepard,” Thane said as they watch Mouse walk away.

She shrugs, “I do what I need to do. Having contacts around helps me gather information for the Broker.” She laughs.

He smiles, “You have grown a lot, Siha,” he whispers and Luna could hear the feelings in his voice.

She chews at her finger and looks towards Garrus. There was a time Thane was close romantically. Someone who, if given the time, would have been someone she cares about, but that never happened.

Garrus nods at them and they made their way back to Commander Bailey.

“I assume you got the name of the person?” Bailey asks, looking at Garrus.

“Yes, the name is Elise Kelham. Call him in, we just want to talk.” Garrus said, crossing his arms.

Bailey groans, “Is that the only way, Spectre? I prefer to have him not cause any trouble with us. He’s been doing his part at upholding his end of the bargain.”

Luna raised her eyebrows, “His end of the bargain? Alright, dirty cop is dirty.” She shrugs.

“I do what I need to do to keep people safe here. If it means dealing with some criminals, then so be it.” He said matter-a-fatly.

Luna puts her arms up, “No, I get it. I am defiantly not someone to be judging what other people do. As long as innocents are safe in your jurisdiction, I don’t care.”

Garrus was silent thinking about what his father would do if he heard about this. Having a Human be the one to enact this type of policing as well? His father would have a heart attack.

“We're going to need him, rather you like it or not, he ordered a hit on someone, and we need to know who it is.” Garrus states.

Bailey nods and calls for Elias to be brought it. Pissing off a Spectre isn’t in his plans today.

As the officers let Elias inside the interrogation room, Garrus walks with them inside the room.

Luna looks at Thane as she takes a seat and brushes Urz’s head. She didn’t know what to say as she thought about him calling her Siha again.

He took a seat next to her, “So, think he will get the information?” He asks.

She nods, “Yeah, just need to point out he’s a Spectre and it would all work out. A lot of people are so afraid of them it’s kind of hilarious. Earlier, when Garrus and I were walking from his apartment, some Turian made a snide remark about us holding hands. Garrus just looked at him and he knew exactly who he was.” She laughs, “Never saw a Turian so scared in my life.”

Thane looks at her a bit sad, “You really do care for him?” He whispers.

She stops laughing, “Yeah…I really do.” She whispers as small smile forms on her face thinking about Garrus.

“Guess I missed my chance. I do regret telling you, no, when you asked if we could be in a relationship.” He leans back.

She shook her head, “You were in the right though. You told me I was only asking so I can get over Kaidan. The relationship would have been a disaster.” She said.

He chuckles, “I wouldn’t say ‘disaster’, more like unhealthy and unfulfilling.” He looks at her and took her hand, “Tell me, Siha, if I had asked you to stay with me the night I helped you find your pain tolerance, would you?” He asks.

Luna quickly took a bite of the skin on her finger, causing it to bleed. She thought of that night. The passion, the pain, the movements, and raw feelings. Thane was truly something, that’s for sure. He made for an amazing lover in bed, and she won’t deny it.

“Yes, I believe I would have.” She said, looking into his eyes.

Garrus walks out of the interrogation room, rolling his eyes, as Elias kept screaming about getting his lawyers; he laughs at the criminal but stops when he saw Luna and Thane holding hands looking into each other’s eyes.

He was pissed.

Luna turns and gasps standing up with a smile on her face walking over to Garrus as Thane slowly got up, his eyes masking his emotions.

“So, got what we needed?” She asks, hoping he didn’t misunderstand what he just saw.

He narrows his eyes away from her, “Yes, Joram Talid, a Turian running for local office, whose ideas are based on anti-human sentiments.” He said coldly, and Luna, again, bites at the skin of her finger, knowing why.

“Garrus, let me explain.”

Baily walks over, “I can get you transportation to where he is if you like.” He said.

Garrus nods, “Please do.” He said and Luna sighs, playing with her hair.

Once in the district, they saw Talid with his Krogan bodyguard. Thane suggested they use the catwalk to follow him, while he would stay in the shadows as they tell him what Talid is doing.

Both Garrus and Luna agrees with the plan and made their way up to the catwalk watching Talid.

Luna looks at Garrus who was avoiding looking at her. She felt upset about what happened and wanted to explain herself. After what they been through, of course, Garrus would appear right as she and Thane were holding hands looking as if they were confessing to each other.

“Garrus let me explain, please.”

“There is nothing to explain, Shepard, just…” he sighs.

She took his hand, “Garrus, remember our promise to each other.” She said and Garrus looks down in shame.

“Right, sorry. It just…it looked like…” He starts, worried.

She swallows, “Garrus, I know it looked like something, but it wasn’t it. I swear.” She said, touching his chest.

“Then tell me. Do you have feelings for him?” He asks, looking in her eyes trying to detect any lies.

 _“Any sign of Kolyat?”_ Thane calls to them.

“No,” Luna said.

_“Alright, I’ll be heading further ahead of Talid.”_

Luna turns back to Garrus who was following Talid tracks.

“Garrus, no, I don’t have feelings for him.” She said and he turns to look at her nervously.

He sighs, “Was there…anything in the past, between you two?” He asks as Talid stands outside a store run by a Human while his Krogan bodyguard talks inside.

Luna holds her hands, trying not to bite her fingers, “Yes, there was history. It never got to the point where Kaidan and I was, but there was history.” She notices Talid and his Krogan were running.

As they ran with them, Garrus groans, “Just…tell me you never had sex with him. I know it’s not my business, but…spirits,” He grumbles, knowing his insecurities were causing him to act this way, just trust her Garrus. Why couldn’t he just let it drop?

They stop and begin to walk.

 _“What’s he doing?”_ Thane asks.

Garrus looks down, “Looks like a shakedown, still no sign of your son,” he said.

_“Alright, keep me updated as you follow.”_

Luna sighs and grabs his arm causing him to stop. Garrus looks at her, then back at Talid, and back at her.

“Shepard, we can’t stop.” He pointed out.

She shook her head, “Thane and I had sex, yes, twice actually. One time after I got back to Omega. This was fresh after Kaidan broke up with me. The second time was when he taught me about my pain tolerance that I told you about a year ago.”

“After we marked each other?” he asks.

She nods, “Yes, and it was great sex. I learned a lot from him that day. Doesn’t mean I want to jump his bones. He asked me; if he had asked me to stay with him after we had sex, would I?”

“Would you have?” He asks, wanting to hide his growing fear, but was failing.

She sadly looks at him, “Yes, because at that time, I cared for him. It was a teen crush that blossomed into my adulthood. It was easy to want him after feeling so dejected from Kaidan.”

“Okay,” he whispers turning around, but Luna held him from behind tightly causing him to not move.

“But, that is the past, Garrus. The only person I want in my life is you. I told you already, I care about you deeply. Please, trust my words, and if not, my actions.” She said and he turns around feeling guilty.

“I’m sorry, Luna. That was stupid of me to think that way. I got so…afraid after seeing him, seeing the look in your eyes. He could give you things I can’t give you, do things for you I can’t do.” He whispers, touching her head with his.

She smiles, “I don’t care about that, Garrus. He can’t give me what you can give me, and he can’t do things you can do.” She giggles, “And here I thought I was the only guilty one comparing you to someone.” She said.

Garrus chuckles

_“Anything yet?”_

Their eyes went wide and they quickly went through the door, when they saw a young adult moving some boxes. He looks at them confused.

“Hey, who are you, what are you doing back here!?” He asks, trying to sound intimidating. Garrus was going to pull the Spectre card when Luna spoke first.

“What am I doing here? What are you doing here!?” She said, quickly faking fear.

He looks at her oddly, “Uh…what?” he asks.

“Do you have any idea how dangerous it is here?!” She looks frightful.

“Dangerous?”

She gasps, “Get out of here now! Before it explodes!”

“What?! Explodes!?”

“Run! Run!”

He starts running, “Oh, my God, Oh, my God!” and the door closes behind him.

Garrus looks shocked, “I can’t believe that actually worked.” He said as they continue on their mission.

Luna looks at Garrus and laughs, “Gets them every time. Used to do that on Omega, constantly.” She said trying to contain her laughter.

When they finally saw Kolyat, Luna rushes forward trying to gain his attention and stop him from doing what he was about to do.

He saw her and quickly shot the guard before bolting towards the running Turian. Luna looks at Garrus who nods at her, and they quickly made their way to Kolyat after telling Thane the details of what occurred.

Entering the room they saw Kolyat point his gun at Talid.

“Please, you don’t want to do this,” Talid begs.

“S-shut up!” Kolyat responds, getting nervous about what he was going to do.

He starts to panic when Luna arrives with Garrus and Thane in tow. After a moment, Commander Bailey walks inside with his gun pointed at him.

“I suggest you put the gun down, son.” He said, aiming his assault rifle at him.

“Kolyat, don’t do it. They have snipers out there ready to fire if you go through with it.” Thane said concern.

“Now you care? Leave me alone, Thane, this is my job and I’m going to do it. Like father, like son, right?” He spat, still aiming the gun at Talid who was now whimpering.

Thane winces at his name being used, “Please, Kolyat, you have so much to look forward to in life. Don’t become like me. I…made mistakes, and I wish I could take them back. I’m sorry I never listened to you when that’s all you wanted.” He said. sadly.

Garrus was looking around the room trying to think of a way to defuse the situation without killing anyone. For a moment, hearing Thane speak to his son, made him think of his own father, and how things were still…hard.

Kolyat glares, “You’ve got to be kidding me. After so long you finally decide to show up? Finally decide to talk to me!” He shouts.

“Kolyat, don’t do it. It isn’t worth it.” Luna said, slowly walking over to him.

Noticing her walking towards him he points his gun at her in fear, shaking as he couldn’t considerate; and a shot was heard right next to him, turning his head in shock at the lamp in the room being shot at by Garrus. When he turns back towards them, his gut was met with the fist of Luna.

Grabbing his gun she sighs, “Honestly, why would you turn your back towards the enemy?” She said, pinching the bridge of her nose.

He looks at her in anger for what she did, but before he could say something, Thane walks over to him.

“I know I haven’t been that great of a father, but please, let me explain. Let’s finally have that talk.” He said, quietly.

“I think you two should have a private place to talk. Why don’t you follow me?” Bailey said, leading them away from the scene allowing the other officers to take care of it.

Garrus turns to the whimpering Talid, “I heard you’ve been causing a lot of trouble with your anti-human stance.” He growls, looking at him.

Talid looks at him in shock, “The Humans deserve it for what they are doing here on the Citadel,” He angrily said.

“Yet it was a human that saved you,” Garrus said, nodding at Luna.

Talid turns to her, “She did only one thing, it was you who saved me with your quick thinking.” He quickly said.

Luna rolls her eyes, “Just make him believe whatever he wants, Garrus.” She said with boredom. Garrus shook his head and stood up.

“Fine, let’s go.” He said, “If I hear you are causing any more problems, I would have to personality talk to you about it.” He growls back at Talid, and they walked out.

When they reached C-Sec office they sat down with Urz, waiting for Thane to finish his talk with Kolyat. Garrus looks at Luna still feeling guilty from earlier.

“I want to apologize for how I acted. I shouldn’t have been jealous of your relationship with Thane.” He said, touching her thigh.

She smiles, “Its okay, gotta live and learn somehow right?” She lays her head on his shoulder and starts to play with his fingers.

“This is my first relationship with a Human, so it’s still hard to accept you would want to be with me. Couple that with the past with Kaidan” He said, looking at her playing with his fingers.

“Kaidan,” She whispers, “I hope I can earn your trust. I know after all I have done to you, it's going to be hard.” She sighs.

“I do trust you, Luna. Just need to stop the negative thoughts from convincing me that you will leave me in a blink of an eye, once you find someone....better, happier...," he starts to fall into this pit of despair, and Luna squeezes his hand tightly.

“Don't, let it win, Garrus. Make my action speak louder than my words.” She said, bring his hand to her mouth and kissing it.

“Fuck, depression is hard…it takes an insecure thought and increases the problem tenfold.” He sighs, “There is still a part of me that tells me, I don’t deserve this. I don’t deserve you.” He admits, and she looks at him.

“Let’s throw away the term deserve, when it comes to this relationship, okay. Instead, let us say, I want this relationship, and I want you.” She said, taking his face in her hand. He stares at her as his mandible twitches in happiness.

“I want this relationship, and I want you, Lunaria Shepard.” He whispers.

She giggles, “I want this relationship, and I want you too, Garrus Vakarian.” She whispers back, squeezing his hand, and placing her head on his shoulder.

“Hey, guess what?” He whispers only for her to hear.

She giggles, “Garrus, don’t say it.” She whispers back.

“I love you,” He whispers, and she squeals quietly in happiness, turning her face away from the people in the area; Garrus laughs at the silliness.

Thane walks out of the room after speaking with his son. Luna stands up and gave him a small smile.

“So, how was it? Everything okay?” She asks.

He nods, “Yeah, it’s going to take some time, but hopefully things will get better.” He said.

She squeezes his shoulder, “We have to leave and head out to follow a lead on this mission we are doing. I want to say it was nice to see you again, and I hope things work out with you and Kolyat.” She said.

Thane smiles, “I understand, wish I could join you, but it’s not possible. Not with my condition.” He said sadly.

Luna’s heart started beating slow, “What…condition?” She asks, scared.

He coughs and sighs, “Kepral's syndrome, it’s a disease that stops me from breathing normally. There is no known cure at the moment, but I am at peace with that. It’s why I am here on the Citadel. That and the fact Kolyat is here doing something I’m glad we stopped him from doing.” He said.

Luna's facial expression, as he spoke, slowly went from surprised to sadden as tears begin forming in her eyes; she looks away and blinks away the tears. He was so…calm with it all, and it hurts.

Closing her eyes tight, she took in a quick breath, fighting back tears, as her throat burns and a lump feeling forces her to swallow.

“Oh…well, I hope to see you before…” She pauses, looking away from him.

“Siha, do not worry about me too much. The doctors here are helping me live for as long as possible.” He said, softly.

Without a thought, she hugs him tightly. He was surprised for a moment before hugging her back. It felt nice to him, holding her like this. Looking up he saw the eyes of her Turian boyfriend, Garrus Vakarian. There was no malicious look, if anything it was full of sadness, but why? Jealousy? No, something else.

Pulling back Luna wipes her eyes, “Just, fight. Fight for your son, Thane. You guys have so much to catch up on.” She forces a smile at him.

“I will, Siha.” 

***

Luna was sobbing in the shower

Hearing her sob was causing Garrus some pain, and he wants to join her, wants to tell her it’s going to be okay. He starts to remember his mother and her own battle.

He gave a loud sigh, before standing up and walking towards the door.

“Hey, you want me to come inside?”

He heard her sniff, “Please, Garrus, not right now. Can…I, just be alone?” She whimpers.

Garrus took a seat by her desk and begin to look up anything about Dr.Tunile. The sobbing was breaking his heart, but he wanted to give her the space she needs.

"EDI, is there any more information about Dr.Tunile?"

"One moment," A few seconds later, "The information on Dr.Tunile has her as a cult leader."

"A cult, why would she need a cult?"

"The cult gives the idea to create a cure for the Krogans and to give the Krogan people freedom. I believe she needs a cult so she could achieve her goal. The Eclipse members you fought against were not cult members, but Jaroth's brother was, hence the reason why they were working for her."

"Isn't it just Krogans? Jaroth's brother would have been a Salarian."

"No, there are Krogans, Salarians, Asari's, and even a few Turians. Many of these people officially join after learning the message of the cult. Some, because they genuinely feel bad for the Krogan people."

"I feel like this is more than just a cure? Does Dr.Tunile want a Krogan restoration like so many?"

"Well, yes, but she doesn't want a Krogan restoration, that would dissuade others, what she wants is simple, giving the Krogan back the ability to have children again. It's not a means to control and dominate other species. Her message is against that kind of thing. It's why she left Dr.Okeer, but it seems she wants him for something."

Garrus kept typing away the information EDI was telling him, reporting for the Council to see, and the other Spectres. Reading the reports from the other Spectres, he notices changes in behaviour in some pockets of the galaxy. How big is this cult and how spread out are they?

"What are the rules? Usually, cults have rules the followers need to respect."

"Our mission, our guide, our rules are what we should and should not do. What we can and cannot do. What we have and must not have. Anyone not following the rules will be terminated, for they are a defect in the mission. We must follow our leader because she is the plan, she is the solution, she is the chosen one."

Garrus stops typing and looks up, "EDI?"

"Sorry, Spectre, I was only setting the mood."

He narrows his eyes, and after a moment turns back to the computer. He studies their colors, black and red with a logo of some sort printed on their armor and clothes. 

The shower stops, and he turns towards the bathroom. When Luna walks out, she looks at Garrus with her eyes puffy and he notices the white of her eyes were red almost like her pupils. 

Walking over to him, she sat in his lap and sob some more in his chest. Holding her tightly, he whispers words of comfort as he rubs her back slowly. It wasn't long until she wasn't crying anymore, and instead, was asleep. Picking her up, he walks over to the bed and lays her down. While pulling the sheet over her body, Archangel jumps from his cat tunnel and lands next to her. 

"Watch her for me, alright. Need to check on a few things." He told the cat, and angel meows at him, before snuggling up next to the sleeping Luna.

When he made it to deck 2 he decided he was going to chat with Joker before seeing if Urz is okay. Ever since Eden Prime, they have been good friends, and it was nice to talk to him even if the jokes can be a little forced.

As he got closer he could hear bickering from Joker and EDI, which was common, what wasn’t common was the giggling that was most defiantly not EDI.

“You should be kinder to EDI, Joker, she’s only trying to help.” The female voice said. When Garrus enters he notice it was Juniper, the ship's gardener.

“I would be kinder if it wasn’t so annoying.” Joker grumbles, crossing his arms.

“I only wish to help with any of your mistakes that would cause damage within the Normandy, Mr. Monroe,” EDI said.

Joker scoffs, “Damage? To the Normandy? See, this is why I don’t listen to this thing. Need a stronger mute button.” He complains, rolling his eyes.

Juniper was the first to notice Garrus, “Hello Spectre, nice to see you.” She said a smile on her face.

“Nice to see you as well, didn’t know there was a party up here.” Garrus jokes.

“It was a party until EDI decided she was going to ruin my fun.”

“Fun shouldn’t be you trying to control things your Human brain cannot comprehend,” EDI said and Garrus was surprised at the insult.

Joker got red in the face at that comment

“That was a joke,” EDI said, “or was it?”

Juniper and Garrus laugh at Joker and EDI. After some time everything quiets down and Garrus just stood there watching the stares.

“Hey, Garrus.” Joker starts.

“Yeah?”

He seems nervous, “How is she?” he asks.

Garrus sighs, “She’s not taking the news well. Cried for a long time, before falling asleep.” He said quietly.

“Jacob said Kasumi isn’t taking the news well either. Said she’s been locked up in the life support room for a while.” Joker said.

“Why don’t you give her some, grapes? She always said they made her feel better.” Juniper said hoping that idea works.

Garrus nods, “I could do that, maybe ask her mother to make her favorite meal.” He pauses, “How is Dr.Shepard taking it?” He asks.

Joker turns around to him, “She is taking it well. I think? She hasn’t been pushing anyone away, nor does she seem sad about it. Said we should find a way to celebrate his life, instead of mourning him when he’s not even gone yet.”

“Dr. Shepard has mentioned that Mr. Krios is in the early stages of his disease.” EDI states.

“Is that so?” Garrus asks.

“Yes”

“Well, that’s good. I should inform, Shepard.” He begins to walk away, but stops, “Hey, how long until our destination? And don't worry, Shepard would be ready.” He asks.

“ETA 26 hours,” Joker answers.

Garrus nods and walks away from the cockpit after saying goodbye. When he got to the elevator he saw Dr.Shepard leave her lab. She looks at him and smiles warmly.

“Hello, Garrus, how are you?” She asks.

“Good, Dr.Shepard.” He replies, the elevator dings, and they enter inside of it.

“Heading up?”

“Uh…no, I want to check on Urz, make sure he’s okay in the shuttle bay.” He said, hitting the button to go to the last deck.

She nods, “No problem, I am heading to the med bay to speak to Karin.”

Garrus coughs, “Is it true that his disease is only in the beginning stages?” He asks.

Dr.Shepard smiles, “Yes, although the news still hurt. Thane is a good friend. We used to meditate together whenever he had the time.” She nods.

When it reaches deck 3, she left the elevator, and Garrus follows after thinking over some things in his head.

“Dr. Shepard, can I speak to you in private?” He asks and she turns to him, eyebrows raised.

“Okay, let’s go to the library then.” She offers and they head inside the library. It was quiet, aside from the humming of the ship.

Garrus took a seat and begins, “I wanted to say that, I love your daughter.” He admits

Laena smiles, “Of course you do.”

He scratches his neck, “I wanted to tell you because I thought of the time when you warned me about how she would react if I show that I feared her.”

She nods, “That is correct, and I was right, she didn’t take it well at all.” She simply states.

“No, she didn’t, but we finally were able to communicate through it. I was pretty angry at first she would push me away, but I am pretty glad she did. Luna pushing me away, pushed me to face my fears. I’m not completely over it, but, I’m in control.” He said.

“Well, I am proud of both of you." She smiles, "When did you figure out that you love my daughter?” She crosses her legs.

“We were just being there for each other, she started to sing my mother's song, and something changed. Suddenly the next words from my mouth were 'I love you'.”

She claps and gives him a big smile, “So, why tell me this? What’s the occasion?”

“I...guess, because I wanted your blessings.” He said, looking directly into her eyes.

She chuckles, "You have my blessings, Garrus. Promise to treat her right, alright." She looks down with a small smile, "John would have loved to meet you."

"Thank you, Dr.Shepard, and I promise to do right by Luna."

“Tell me, has she said it back?”

“No, she said she wasn’t ready and I respect her decision. She recently let go of Kaidan, so I’m not in any rush to hear her say it. I knew I was in love with her and so I told her.” He said confidently.

“You remind me of John,” She laughs, “He would always figure out his feelings before me. Took me a while to admit I was in love with him.”

“Is that so?” He chuckles, “I keep telling her, she would say it to me one day. Hell, I would tease her by saying, ‘I love you’. Her responses are so cute,” Garrus’s mandible twitches at the memories.

Laena laughs, “He never teased me about telling him I loved him, but he would try to push me to say it through his actions.” She sighs sadly, “I miss him, every day.” She said softly.

“Sorry for having you bring him up.”

She smiles, “Oh, its okay, Garrus, talking about happy memories is nice. I always remind myself that even if he has passed, he is still with me.” She said looking directly at his eyes.

He thought of Mayre, “Yes, you are correct.” He whispers.

“So, how’s the mother?” She asks.

He sighs, “Sometimes she’s good, sometimes she's…worse. I’m hoping this mission would be over with soon so I could spend some time with her.”

She nods, “Don’t worry, I feel our journey is coming to a close soon. May I ask, what will you do next?”

“Well, I am still a Spectre, I plan on continuing my work. Spend more time with my family as well.” He looks out at the galaxy, “Hope to fix things with my father.” He said quietly.

She stood up and rub his back, “Don’t wait too long to fix things with your father, Garrus, we may have long life spans, but we shouldn’t take time for granted,” She points out, before heading to the door.

“I won’t,” He said, looking out at the stars.

***

After spending some quality time with Urz in the shuttle bay, he made his way back up to Luna’s cabin to check on how she was doing.

When he walks inside he saw her laying down, naked, watching a romance movie, and surprisingly, it was about a Human and Turian.

He took off his clothes and joins her in the bed.

“Can I just go on the record and say, this bed is fantastic.” He groans in pleasure feeling the bed compliment his body.

She giggles, “I agree,” She said and kisses his mouth before going back to her movie.

He yawns, “Alright, what is this one about?” he asks.

She grins, “Well! It’s called, Andromeda! And right now the male lead, Scott Ryder, is flirting with his female Turian team member, Vetra Nyx.” She begins.

Two hours later a call from his Omni-tool woke him up.

It was from his father.

Sitting at the edge of the bed, he sat down and answers the vid com.

“Hey dad,” he said, lazily looking at his father.

“Garrus, it’s good to hear from you,” Castis said.

Garrus could tell he wanted something, “Good to hear from you as well. Is there something you need?” He asks.

His father coughs, “Yes, I saw the vid today from the Citadel, with that reporter woman…what was her name…Khalisah al-Jilani,” he starts and Garrus instantly knew where this was going.

“Ahh, her. The questions she was giving me were annoying. I prefer to not speak to her again,” he said rolling his eyes. It was silent for a moment after he said that, and Garrus stares at his father, whose eyes were narrowed in anger.

“So, when am I going to meet her?” His father finally asked staring at Garrus.

Garrus looks at the naked woman in bed sleeping.

“Not right now, I just want to take things slow, and see where it goes before she meets you,” Garrus said, and everything went silent again; his father’s eyes never wavering.

His father sighs, “A Human.” His father scoffs, shaking his head and looking away from Garrus in disapproval.

Garrus glares at him, “Yes, a human, and rather you like it or not, I love her.” Garrus said already pissed about the conversation.

Castis eyes grew wide, “You love her? Garrus, I know they saved you, I know they are working with you, but to actually love a human? Is this the human you bonded with four years ago?” He growls in anger.

Garrus looks him in the eyes, “Yes, yes she is.” He said, confidently.

His father was silent, and Garrus could see him about to explode in anger.

“Why would you do this, Garrus? Why would you disgrace the Vakarian name?” He asks angrily.

Garrus look surprised, “Disgrace the Vakarian name?” He asks in disbelief and scoffs, “I can’t believe this, you’re actually are doing this again.” He laughs looking everywhere but his father. His hand covers his mouth while he shook his head in shock that his father is really playing the ‘disgrace to the family name’ card, again.

“Do what to you? Teach you how to be a proper Turian?” He asks.

He glares at the Omni-tool, “Each time, I make a choice you don’t approve of, you give me the ‘how could you disgrace the Vakarian name’, crap.” Garrus growls glaring at him, “and the sad part is, it usually fucking works.” He said.

“What are you talking about, Garrus? Is it wrong for me to want my family to be upstanding Turians of the Hierarchy?” His father asks.

Garrus’s mandibles flares, “‘Upstanding Turians’, spirits dad, seriously?” He shook his head, “Spirits! I am so sick of you doing this to me!” He shouts, forgetting the other person in the room. "All my choices are a problem for you!"

“That’s not true. What about Mayre, may the Spirits watch her, she was your choice and a good choice at that. I approved of her.” He states.

Garrus rolls his eyes, “If I remember correctly, you didn’t approve of her because she was a lower status Turian. You only approved of her after she met mom.” he grumbles.

“That’s not true!”

He stands up. “Oh, but it is, dad! You believed she was going to use me for my money, almost had me break up with her because of it.” He laughs angrily, “You never approved of me wanting to become a Spectre either.” He said.

“I approve of it! I am proud of you son.” Castis said angrily trying to get through to his son.

“Spirits, dad. You only approved of it because you felt sorry for me after I told you what happened to my crew. You just wanted to pander to me.”

“Garrus I-” he tries to speak,

Garrus cuts him off, “And now you don’t want to approve of my relationship with Luna because she’s Human. This,” he points at him through the vid com, “this is why I don’t want her to meet you, yet! I just want to be happy with her before you try to ruin what happiness I have with her.” He growls standing up.

“Garrus”

“I am sick and tired of you trying to shove yourself into me, expecting me to be a ‘good Turian’, expecting me to always follow what you want, and do exactly what you want!” He shouts, not noticing Luna sitting up looking at him.

“Listen, son I-”

“I don’t want to hear it, dad! I don’t want to deal with the lectures or you telling me how to feel! You want to know how I feel. I feel like shit, I feel like the galaxy is swallowing me whole!” He gasps.

“Garrus if you could ju-”

“I have depression, but you don’t want to hear that do you? ‘Depression is a Human thing’, ‘I shouldn’t act like a human.’, and the best one, ‘therapy is for Humans, we’re Turians, Garrus.’” He said imitating his father before sitting back on the bed.

There was silence as they both stare at each other.

Garrus was the first to speak, “You say therapy is only for weak people, but it isn’t. I’ve been going to therapy and it’s been helping.” He sighs, “Luna is,” He closes his eyes, “Luna is important to me, dad. She makes me happy, helps me not fall off the deep end.” He looks at his father, “You can’t change that; I won’t allow you to change how I feel this time.” He said.

Castis went to say something but stops as he sighs.

“Luna met mom, dad, and mom likes her.” He swallows, “Mom said, ‘don’t be scared; don’t let fear stop you from experiencing life.’” Garrus said looking at his father.

His father stares at him, “I understand.” He said quietly, allowing the words to sink in. A deep pain plays in his eyes and facial expression as he thought of his wife; he misses her.

Garrus sighs, “I’ll talk to you later, dad. Sorry, I’m a disappointment to you. Sorry, I couldn't make you proud.” He said.

His father sighs and shook his head, “Alright, son, we’ll talk later.” He said sadly, “and you’re not a disappointment to me, Garrus. I truly am proud of you.” He finishes.

After coming off coms Garrus sat there. He heard shuffling on the bed and soon arms wrap around his neck as she plants butterfly kisses on him, one on top of his fringe.

“Hey,” she whispers, another kiss on his mandibles.

“Hey,” He whispers back.

“Everything alright?” She asks, another kiss on her mark.

He leans down, and sighs, putting his head in his hands. Luna shifts her body to have him between her legs as she wraps her arms around him, and she lays her head on his back.

"I'm here for you, no matter what, okay." She whispers, holding him tight.

"Thank you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoyed today's chapter and the addition of Thane wasn't too weird.
> 
> The Krogan Genophage plot is starting to wrap up, I don't know if you guys were at least moderately intrigued with that plot, but I am. Lots of time, research, and editing was put into it. 
> 
> My favorite part was the end, with Garrus opening up and expressing his feelings to his father. What's yours?


	28. Her Point of View

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Laena makes a new friend, and we see a piece of her daily routine. Navi confronts her past mistakes, and Luna is too late.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This Chapter is heavy with OC character development. (I do know Luna is pretty much my OC, but I believe every Shepard male/female, are OC lol. So, she doesn't count!). 
> 
> Tigger warning: This chapter mentions past grooming and sexual assault. This isn't shown, just spoken about, but I wanted to warn, just in case.

Laena woke up and lied in bed thinking about John. She always woke up like this, thinking of her late husband before finally sitting up and taking deep breaths.

Standing up, she walks over to her coffee maker and begins to make a cup. With the coffee brewing, she walks into her private bathroom and begins to shower. A thought of John crosses her mind, picturing him walking inside the shower, wrapping his arms around her waist, as he slides his hand down her-

She took a deep breath, rolling her shoulder and neck. After her nice warm shower, she walks over to her coffee maker and pours a cup.

“EDI, what is the mission today?”

“Commander Shepard is going on planet Joab to follow the lead Uvek given us. We scanned the Planet and the site is being held by the Blue Suns.”

“Hopefully, it’s the right planet.” She took a sip before placing it down on her desk and taking a seat on her bed.

With a deep breath, she begins her morning meditation.

Opening her eyes, she saw him. His blue eyes stare at her full of love and his smile made her heart skip a beat.

“Hello, John.”

“Hello, Laena.”

They were both quiet, just staring at one another, with smiles on their faces. John was the first to react, moving his hand to touch her cheek.

“I miss you, my love.” He whispers, and she whimpers.

“I miss you as well,”

It was not long before he starts moving closer to her, she did not move towards him though; instead, she sat there waiting for him to come close to kissing her, before disappearing.

When his lips touch hers, she was shocked and her eyes went wide. Leaning into the kiss, she felt herself falling.

Gasping, Laena sat up from the floor and groans in pain.

“Are you alright, Dr.Shepard? Should I call Dr.Chakwas?” EDI asks.

Laena sighs, “No, that’s alright, EDI. Have Luna woke up?”

“No, she and Spectre Garrus are still sleeping at the moment. Should I wake them?”

She shook her head, “No need, EDI.” She said.

Walking over to a drawer, she picks out her outfit for the day and puts the outfit on before heading out her cabin.

When she made it to the kitchen, she walks over to the fridge and begins to pick out food for the crew.

“Oh, this is great! Glad I am awake to eat some of your food, Dr.Shepard.” One of the crewmates said a smile on his face.

She laughs, “Only until Rupert wakes up.” She said.

An hour past and she made enough food for the next shift. As she was making a few more dextro base food, Joker walks in a grin on his face.

“Yes! Early enough for Dr.Shepard’s breakfast.” Joker grins, reaching out to grab some egg.

She slaps his hand and glares at him. Angry that he was trying to share himself some food without her consent. Gasping, he held his hand.

“Ow! You could really hurt me,” he whines and she glares at him.

“I will not have you touching the food with your bare hands, Joker.”

He groans, “Come on, I have to head to the piolet seat soon, and I need to eat before I do,” he whines again. Laena sighs and shares him his plate of food before shooing him away.

As she ate with Joker and the other crewmembers. They talked about the mission coming up and wondered how things will change once the Spectre is not onboard anymore.

More people came, shared their food, ate, and went to their stations.

Walking inside the med bay with server bot behind her, Laena smiles warmly at Karin and sat next to her.

“I made some food for everyone here, and I got you the coffee you love so much.” She said, placing it next to Karin.

Karin kept typing at her computer, “Thank you, Laena. How did you sleep?” She asks.

“I slept alright. Did my meditations, and now I am here, speaking with you. You?”

“I slept alright as well. Was a bit chilly, though.”

“I am sorry Dr.Chakwas if you like, I could increase heating when you’re asleep,” EDI said.

Karin shook her head, “No need for that. Just needed my blankets.”

Laena looks towards the mumbling Salarian and shook her head.

“I see he is hard at work.”

Karin chuckles, “Yes, would not leave that place to even eat!” She calls out.

“Cure important, Karin. Need revisions.” Inhales “Will eat soon. Heard Laena cooked?” He asks, happily.

“I have, Mordin. The serving bot has your food whenever you are ready to eat.”

“Thank you.” He said and went back to his work, ignoring everyone in the room.

Laena sat there thinking, as Karin types away. Her eyes turn towards the female Krogan Shaman sitting there on her bed. Although they were allowed off Sur’Kesh, their immunities were terrible and so they had to stay on the ship to recover for the meantime.

The younger Krogan was sleeping soundly, which made Laena smile, happy that she was at peace.

“I hope Jun’ka has found peace with the elders.” The Shaman whispers and Laena looks over towards her.

Crossing her legs, she smiles, “Krogan religion has always been a question for me. I do know your people believe in the void and had elders back then.”

“Yes, the ancient ones needed something to believe in as our world was harsh.” She said.

Laena was quiet as she stares at the female. She begins to recall the time she never believed in anything before becoming spiritual.

“When you were speaking to Garrus and Luna, you said something about Dr.Tunile. You knew her?”

The Shaman sighs and nods, “Yes, she and I were sisters. Not in the sense of blood, but just friends. I watched her try and try again to lay good eggs, but not of them survived.” She said, sadly.

“I am sorry to hear.”

She looks at Laena, “It was very hard on her. I saw my friend slowly sink into this depression. It ate at her every day, and it got worse each time. I told her to stop, begged her to give her body rest, but she wouldn’t have any of it.” She said.

“What did she do?”

“She went to kill herself that last time I saw her. She wanted my blessings before heading out deep into the desert.”

Mordin hums a little louder and sings softly. Laena looks at him for a moment and knew the old Salarian was feeling remorse.

The Shaman shifts in her bed, “I knew she was going to kill herself. I’ve seen many of us walk into the desert hoping a thresher maw would eat us.” She crosses her arms, “What I didn’t know, was that she didn’t do that, instead, she went to Dr.Okeer.”

Laena nods, “How did she become a doctor?”

“Oklie was always smart. It was just a matter of time. She just couldn’t hatch good eggs like many other female Krogans.” She said softly and became quiet.

After a moment of through, Laena spoke, “With this cure, the only surface way we have to disrupt it is by injections. What will happen with the Krogan people? You see, I trust Wrex, but he’s just one man.” She starts.

“I talked to Wrex, and we came up with a plan. Only if you follow the Urdnot ways will you receive this cure. There will be fights, there will be anger, but I understand your concern and see what you mean.” She said.

“Sounds like a dictatorship,” Laena said.

She laughs, “It does, doesn’t it.” She quiets down, “We don’t have the luxury to have multiple leaders. We need someone to follow, rules to be enforced, traditions to be upheld. I am not saying we will be perfect, but what I am saying is, my people need to change.”

“Monarchy then? You as Queen, Wrex as King?” Laena said with her eyes brows raise.

The Shaman laughs, “Yes, actually. I did not think well of the idea before, but it is warming up to me. I know I could lead my people to a better life. In time we will be looked at as another advanced race, but until then, this ‘monarchy’, will have to do.”

“I hope things will work out and the galaxy is ready for this.” She whispers.

“I am worried about that. Once the Council gets wind of what we are doing, will they kill us?”

Laena thought long, “I think we could spin things in our favor. Politicians will do anything to save face. I have seen it plenty of times when I was working years ago. We’re going to need video evidence of what the Genophage is doing to the Krogan people.”

“Will that work?”

“Hopefully, with public opinion low, they will change their mind and give you all a chance. This is of course if public opinion will be low.” She grumbles.

The Shaman looks down, “I will still want the cure, Dr.Shepard. I don’t care what happens next. My people deserve to be free from this plague.” She closes her eyes, “No more stillborns, no more pain, and no more war. We have the right to pursue happiness.” She finishes.

“Must explain to Council how cure works.” Mordin brings up, “With cure, females will have normal amount of children, one or three maybe four or five. Council's main concern is Krogan giving birth to thousands of eggs; this cure will take that option away.”

“I thought that was harsh, but the Dr.Mordin helped me see it correctly.” She said.

Laena crosses her arms, “You think the Council will be happy with this?”

“Why not? Krogan will be happy, no more stillbirths, and will have normal families; Council will not have to worry about Krogan expansion! Win-Win.”

“Wouldn’t Krogans be wishing for expansion?” Karin wonders, “I know you said to follow the Urdnot rules, Shaman, but I’m sure once you give them the cure, they will do something about it.”

“We thought about that, and that will result in the death of the Krogan. Wrex is strong and powerful, no one will defy him. Doesn’t mean we push away the thought of some doing so.”

“You had everything figured out from the beginning?”

She laughs, “I have time to think about it all. When Maelon spoke about creating a cure, I knew it would not just end with it. I knew the Council will try to either kill us or end it, which they are with Spectre Garrus.” The Shaman spoke.

Laena closes her eyes and thought about what Garrus would say at this moment. Would he agree? Maybe? She does not know, and she will not fault him for doing his job.

“What I also knew was that with a cure, my people will find a way to seek revenge for what happened with us. The idiots, I say. Many of the female Krogans do not wish for war, we only want peace and children to call our own.”

“I need to meet more of the females of your kind. The galaxy needs to meet the females! You all are smart to not wish for war.” Laena said.

The Shaman nods, “Yes, it was a war that put us in this situation. Why go for it again?” She tilts her head, “I wonder, Dr.Shepard, is it because of the love you have for Wrex, why you want to help our people?” She asks.

Laena smiles, “No, what I and Wrex have is…,” She hesitates, “He’s only a lover in bed, no more than that. Wrex is not the reason why I want to do this. Why I have worked hard to create this with the help of Mordin.” She sighs, “Years ago, I had my own experience with having a stillborn.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, it was when I was taken away from my colony by Batarians. I was heavily pregnant at the time and when I was being tortured, raped, and experimented on…the baby did not survive. I gave birth to her and they laughed.” Laena grabs her knees.

“How cruel of them.”

“I felt like a failure. I felt like I did not belong in this life. Her name was supposed to be Navy, my husband wanted to name her that.”

“Is that the reason why your Turian daughter is named Navi?”

She laughs, “Yes!” She gasps, “When Wrex told me about what was happening to the Krogan people, I knew I had to figure out something to help. That empty feeling I felt after my tragedy. Countless of Krogans were feeling it not once, or twice, but on multiple occasions.” She said.

“Thank you, Dr.Shepard. I pray in the future you will have more children.”

Laena stares at her, and Karin stops typing. Looking over to Laena, she touches her arm and rubs it.

“That won’t…be possible,” She took in a breath, “After being a slave to the Batarians; I have lost the ability to have children. My Uterus was irreversibly damaged and needed a Hysterectomy. If it wasn’t for Mordin and Karin catching it, who performed the surgery, I would have died.” She whispers as tears begin to form in her eyes.

“I am…sorry…I did not know.” She said.

“No, it’s alright. It is why I cannot be away from my children. They are so important to me.” She gasps as tears fell down her face.

“Laena…,” Karin whispers.

She sniffs, “No, it's okay, I need to cry. I do not believe in holding in emotions. It’s okay to cry.” She whimpers and begins to sob into her hands.

She felt a hand touch her shoulder and she looks up seeing the Shaman looking at her. In her other hand, there was some sort of gem.

“I want to give this to you when I lost my first child that is when I lived. I went to become a Shaman and had to go through harsh training to get to where I am now. One of these training required me to survive only in a dark cave with only enough food to last seven days.”

“They trapped you in there?” She whispered in a hoarse voice.

“Yes, I had to dig my way out. It was scary at first, but I found this beautiful gem, and it became my light.” She said.

Wiping her eyes, Laena smiles, “Then why give it to me? I know I am crying here, but I can assure you, I am okay. As I said, I don’t believe in holding in emotions, it’s okay to cry.” She sniffs.

“I am not trying to teach you anything, if that is what you are thinking, Dr.Shepard, I merely want to give this to you as a friend. We share our tragedies today, and I wish to be there for you as you are for me.”

Taking the gem, she held it in her hands tightly, smiling at her.

“Thank you, Shaman.” She chuckles, “If we are friends, then please call me Laena.” She said.

“If I will call you Laena, then please call me Baraka. Once everything is over, there is no need for me to be a Shaman, as my time will be focusing on my people, and leading them to a better future.” She said, going back to her bed.

“Glad to hear, Baraka.”

***

Sitting in her lab, Laena was analyzing a small project of hers.

“EDI can you record the information for me and store it in my personal storage.” She said.

“Yes, Dr.Shepard.”

An hour passes by as she continues to study when the door to her lab opens up revealing Luna.

“Hey, mom,” She said, taking a seat a chair.

“Hello, Luna. How was the mission? Did you find out what we needed?” She said not looking at Luna.

“Sadly, no. The information Uvek gave us was just a normal site where the Blue Suns occupied.” She said annoyed, “But we did find out another outpost. We are heading there right now as we speak.”

“That’s good. Have you thought of talking to Uvek?”

“Mom, really? I rather not.”

She sighs, “Learning more about him might help ease your skepticism about him.”

Luna shook her head, “Once we get the information we need to find Dr.Okeer, then I’ll let him go and we won’t have to deal with him again.” She said.

Crossing her arms, Laena thought for a moment before nodding her head.

“Alright, let's go to speak to him.” She said and begins to walk outside. Luna follows with a shock expression.

“Wait, what?”

“We’re going to talk to him. I wish to learn more about him, and hope you will come with to do so as well.” She said as she clicks the elevator.

As Luna complains, they made their way towards the life support room, and signal to the guards that they could take a break.

Once inside, Luna took a seat as far away from Uvek as possible, while Laena sat in another seat. Uvek was just sitting there reading a book, but having the Shepards there did not sit well with him.

“Hello,” he said and Luna glares at him.

Laena smiles, “Hello Uvek, I hope you are doing well.”

He nods, “Yes, I ate some food today. It was good.” He said, quietly.

“We came here to tell you the place you suggested was wrong, but we are heading towards a new area that is occupied by the Blue Suns,” Laena said.

“How did you find out about this other place? It could be a trap.” He warned.

Luna scoffs, “If it’s a trap we could handle it just fine.” She grumbles.

He rolls his eyes, “Suit yourself, Human.” He whispers, turning back to his book.

“I remember we talked about you being a slave, and how you were able to escape that life, to become a slaver,” Laena said.

He looks at her, “Yes, I don’t regret doing what I needed to do, so I could live.”

“Was that the only option?”

“During my time? Yes. When I left my colony as an escaped slave, a Blue Sun recruiter I helped gave me a chance at leading my own life.”

“So, you wanted to be a slaver?” she asks, crossing her arms.

He sighs, “I wanted to take back control over my life. Of course, that is not how it works. Even if I did not want to enslave others, I had to do what my leader commands of me. I couldn’t go back to being a slave, and if there was another choice, I would do anything to prevent that.”

Luna looks at him, “What happened while you were a slave?” She asks.

“The usual beatings, working, and other things I don’t wish to speak about.” He said.

“Did they make you eat your own kind? Did they torture you until you broke? Did you get experimented on completely mutating your body?” She growls, clutching her hand.

He looks at her, “No? I mean, yes to torture, but we were never made to eat our own and experimented on…” He said confused.

“Of course,” She spat looking away from the Batarian who stares at her with guilt.

“I…knew that was happening to the Humans, usually they die.” He sighs, “It’s why I wanted to stop. Couldn’t take it anymore after something happened.”

Laena tilts her head, “What happened?”

He turns his head towards the drive core, “I saw a young boy being offered as a sex slave to one of the Humans who wanted to buy him. He kept crying, and begging them not to take him.” He starts.

“Human? Humans were buying Batarian slaves?” Luna asks and starts to bite at the skin around her fingers.

“Did you think no Humans were buying Human slaves?” He asks.

Luna groans, “I mean…yes, but I just…I don’t know.”

“You rather believe it’s only Batarians just to keep your racism and hate towards us strong.” He said.

She shook her head, “I’m not an idiot, okay! I just…you do not understand why I hate Batarians. They ruined us! They killed my father!” She shouts.

“Lulu, please calm down,” Laena said.

“Doesn’t mean we’re all the same!” Uvek shouts back.

“Don’t you dare shout at me! You are a slaver!” She growls her eyes turning black.

“I had to be a slaver! Sometimes people have to do shit they don’t like to survive in this galaxy! Look what happened when I finally could not take it anymore! They beat the shit out of me and left me for dead! My own lover joined them in and left me for dead!” He shouts, pain filling his voice.

Luna pauses, feeling bad for him, but no, she couldn’t let it go. All she saw was that toothy grin, staring at her as she screams in pain, begging him to stop.

“You had a choice! You shouldn’t have been a slaver.” She said, focusing on only one thing.

“Slaver this! Slaver that! Are you not listening to me?! I told you, I did not have a choice! Stop listening to your own echo chamber for once!” He said, frustrated.

“Your people are a menace to society.” She growls.

He laughs, “Is that so? What about your people?” He spat.

Laena shook her head, “Luna,” She said. They both looked at Laena and she stood up, walking towards the large window of the drive core.

“Mom, you said for me to join you so I could understand him. Well, I can’t okay. I can’t get over what they did to me, what they did to us.” Luna said.

“I thought you stopped comparing, Luna.”

Luna opens her mouth to speak back, but looks away.

“I know the Garrus and Kaidan situation was somewhat different; but just because the Batarians of our past did what they did, doesn’t mean the Batarians we meet are the same.”

“The whole galaxy knows their racist. How they still practice slav-”

“The whole galaxy has their own prejudices towards each other, and slavery is used among other races. They just hide it, while the Batarian culture is built around it.” Laena sighs, turning around to looks Luna in the eyes.

Tears threatened to fall, “After what they did…how can you just… be okay with it.” She said devastated.

“I never said I was okay with it, Luna. What happened to us was with entirely different people from Uvek.”

“But he was a slaver, mom”

“And I was the Turian Butcher; yet, Garrus was able to not hate me for what I’ve done. If anything, I think we have formed a closer bond since then.” She smiles, “People change all the time, my moon.” She said.

Luna sighs and turns around staring at the door. A part of her wanted to just walk away and not give a fuck, but she wanted to change, and let go of the pain.

“That day made me realize the hate and anger I placed within you and Naviana. I should have worked better to allow you both to understand, not everyone is the same. I want to change that as more time passes.” She whispers.

Turning back, Luna looks at Uvek and nods.

“You said you were a slave?” She asks, sitting down as Uvek stares at the ground.

“Yeah, as I said before, my parents sold me for some food…wasn’t even that much, now that I think about it.” He looks at her, “And just like that little boy, I begged and cried for them not to…”

***

She could hear him singing horribly in the shower as she slept. Turning on her side, Laena looks at her private shower and giggles. Standing up and getting out of bed, she walks towards the shower ready to spook him.

Opening the door, she saw Navi.

“Navi,” She whispers, trying to hide her disappointment.

Navi tilts her head oddly at her mother, “Morning, mommy. Did you sleep well?” She said, washing the soap off her body.

Laena nods, “Yes, sorry for interrupting. Didn’t know you were in there.” She said and closes the door.

As Navi showers, Laena sat on the bed and stares into the darkness of the room. In her head, she could hear his voice, feel his kiss and touches, and taste hi-

She coughs and puts herself in her meditative position. Taking a deep breath, she meditates.

Walking out the shower, Navi had her towel wrapped around her body as she walks over to her clothes that she brought up from her room to put on. While dressing she saw her mother meditating.

Sitting down, she watches.

She knew, asking her mother the questions that were on her mind wouldn’t be so bad, as her mother would answer them, but she wanted to be patient.

Her mind starts to drift to James, and the night she said goodbye to him. It was…weird. Not in the sense of creepy weird, but weird as in…I really like this, but I am scared to keep going weird. Is that even a weird?

She sighs quietly. She and James have been talking to one another for a year now, and it is nice. Sure, he was an older guy, but he wasn’t that old. Her sister is old; her mother is old, old. James is young. Like, twenty-two years young.

She plays with her hands and scratches her neck. Was that too old for her? She was seventeen, so, it’s normal, right?

“Fuck,” She whispers, and instantly look at her mother worried, but she did not react.

Not like, they were dating anyway. He is a human and…he does not find Turians attractive. Then why did he kiss her!? Wait, was it he who kissed her, or she who kissed him?

She squeezes her eyes tight and internally groans. Talking to Hilary was crap yesterday. Being her best friend, it was already biased from the start.

Navi thought about her sister and wondered what she would think of the situation. Of course, she would tease the crap out of her. God, her sister can be so…annoying.

What the hell does it all mean? Does he like her? Is he using her? Should she really be thinking this hard about it? What if, wait for it, what if it was all just a dream!

“Naviana, is everything alright?” Her mother asks.

Navi snaps out of her thoughts, “Yes! I mean…yes?”

Laena tilts her head in confusion and waits for Navi to talk. It was a nice quiet, as Navi's tense shoulders begin to relax, thinking of what to say.

“I kissed James.” She blurts out and covers her mouth right after in embarrassment. That was not what she wanted to say!

Her mother looks in shock, “You kissed James?” Her mother asks. Sure, she sounds calm, but Navi isn’t stupid. Her mother was ready to strike.

“Yes, no? Maybe, I think I kissed him or he kissed me, but it happened only once, and it’s like okay.” She said, looking anywhere but her mother.

Crossing her arms, “I’ve taught you how to speak, my little Turian, I know you could explain better than that,” She said.

Navi sighs, “I…Yeah, so we kissed when he was dropping me off at the hotel room. We visit these pretty awesome places for my birthday, and he bought me some gadgets I had my eyes on.” She said.

“And kissing is that all he did?”

“Yes, nothing else, I swear.”

“Then why do you seem so, nervous. As if he did something.” She asks worriedly.

“He didn’t, mom, trust me. We just kissed, but I don’t know. I guess I am nervous because I don’t know where it leaves us.”

Laena touches her shoulder, “Is he ignoring you? Because if he is, I’l-”

“No! No, we still talk as if everything is the same and nothing happened.” She lied, “I never brought it back up, and he hasn’t brought it up. Honestly, I rather not bring it back up. I want things to be the same.”

“Are you sure about that? It looks like you really like this guy.”

She groans, “It will never work! He doesn’t like Turians like that, said we’re weird-looking.” She said, sadly.

“He what?!” Her mother was ready to kill.

Navi puts her hands up, “This was before we establish a friendship!” She squeals.

“I don’t understand. Is he an asshole or…?”

“No, he’s not an asshole. He was a bit…prejudice at first, but he changed as time went on. To be honest, I’m surprised he was still talking to me. As time went on he became more curious about Turians, and how we work.” She laughs, “I told him what I knew.” Her mandibles twitch in happiness.

“Well, it seems like he’s trying to get to know you. Is there something you’re not telling me, Navi?”

Navi didn’t say anything and starts to play with her mother's bed sheets. They were so soft, so nice, and let's not focus on the woman, who is her mother, that is staring at her right now!

“I don’t understand how I should react. Should I be surprised? Should I worry where this leaves us? Could it even work? Is he using me for some weird fetish? I just…remember when I was little? With that Turian I trusted like a fool." Navi quickly said and was about to ask more.

“When you were younger…” Laena whispers and Navi sighs.

“I’m scared he likes me because I’m small. I still get dreams of that day, mom. If I wasn’t so stupid and followed that man.” Navi gasps.

Laena grabs her hands, “You are not stupid. Made a mistake, yes, but do not victim-blame yourself! What he did was wrong, and he paid the price with his life." She runs her hand down Navi's face, "He can’t do anything to you, Navi, he can't hurt anyone ever again.” She squeezes her shoulder.

“I know, but…I was so stupid and naïve, and…and…what if James is the same way?

“James seems nice. The age threw me off for a bit, but it’s not so bad after I got to know him. he doesn't strike me as someone who would use you," She starts.

Navi sat there and thought about it. 

Laena kisses the top of her head, "Why don't we change the subject. How is school? Still straight A’s?”

Navi giggles, “Of course, mommy. Although, I am looking to get help from Tali later today for my homework.” 

***

“Okay, here me out. Wait for it,”

“Hilary, really? Can’t you just say it?” Navi groans as she steps back from failing, again, at fixing this damn robot. Sighing, she sat down on her bed and glares at it.

“I like to keep the suspense!” Hilary laughs through the hologram.

“It’s not suspenseful if I know it’s going to involve a bomb.”

Hilary rolls her eyes, “Look, here little Turian,”

“Hey! Just because you stand at 5’2 does not mean crap! You’re only two inches taller than me!” Navi pouts.

Hilary laughs and rolls her eyes, “Still means I’m taller than you.” She mocks and sticks her tongue out.

“Just tell me already.” Navi groans dropping onto the bed in annoyance. Staring up at the ceiling she sighs, sometimes she misses Omega and her engineering friends. Hilary is nice to hang out with, and hopefully, they could visit Tiptree to visit her, but Omega was where they are, and they would love to see EDI process.

“Okay, here me out,”

“You said that already,” She said, crawling more onto the bed and laying on her side to stare at the pouting brown-haired woman.

“Just let me have fun! Anyway! Hear me out!” Navi rolls her eyes and Hilary glares, “Nuke in a gun! There I said it! I hate you sometimes.” Hilary whines.

Navi laughs before stopping, “Nuke in a gun? What?”

Hilary stands up and jumps up from her chair, “Yes! Nuke in a gun! I call it ‘NukeaGun’” She bobs her head rapidly.

“NukaGun? Really?”

“Okay, yeah, um name in progress. But think about it a nuke in a gun.”

“No, why are all your idea so crazy?”

Hilary laughs, “I’m crazy! Got a doctor’s note to prove it!” She beams and claps.

Navi shook her head, “Uh, may I see it, ma’am?”

“Of course madam Turian! Right here, my doctor told me I am somewhat crazy, and all I could think about it blowing shit up, of course, when necessary.” Hilary giggles.

Navi’s mandible twitches, “Well, then I see nothing wrong here. I am sorry ma’am to speak to you about this. Maybe, it’s the Nuke In A Gun! That got me worried.” Navi emphasizes.

As they continue their silly dialogue, Navi begins to think about what's going to happen after Garrus leaves from the ship. Sure, he and Lulu are together, but what’s next? She’s going to graduate from school after this year, which is nice, but what then?

She always wanted to be an engineer. Hearing her crazy ass friend, Hilary Monroe, talk about a nuke in a gun, was pretty crazy, but what if?

Navi shook her head pushing the thought out. No, she would not create a damn nuke in a gun. Nukes are extremely dangerous, but what…if it was a contained nuke? Not as government military terrible?

Navi! This happens all the damn time, a crazy idea pops in her head, and she has to explore it. This time the crazy idea is from her best friend, the explosion loving Hilary.

“Navi! Was my idea that good, you have to have a ten minutes thought process about it?!” Hilary asks.

Navi blinks, “What?”

“Nothing, so, what’s going on with you and James?”

Navi rolls her eyes, “What we should be talking about is school. What do you think? The Citadel? Or Palaven?” She asks.

Hilary gasps, “Wait, you’re not coming to Tiptree?! I thought we were going to the same school.”

“Well, I wanted to go to a place more diverse. Going to a Human college isn’t very fun, to be honest. I had my fair share of racist Humans, thank you.” She said, clicking on a vid.

“I mean, yes they are assholes, but to actually not join up with me? Come on, Navi! You know I can’t afford the Citadel.” Hilary whines.

Navi looks at her, “Hilary, are you really using the puppy dogs eyes one me. You do know I prefer cats’ right?”

She groans, “Oh, fuck off! Dogs are better in every way! Cats are just lazy assholes.”

“Hey, don’t talk about Archangel like that! Just so you know; he is awesome!”

Hilary laughs before sighing, “I’m serious, Navi, I can’t afford the Citadel.”

“Maybe, my sister could help?”

“Wasn’t she like out of work for almost a year?”

“Yes, but my sister has savings.”

“What should I say, ‘hey, Luna, you think I could get a loan to pay for college on the Citadel?” Hilary grumbles.

“I mean, yes, but I do expect you to pay it off,” Luna said, walking inside the room. Navi shot up, watching as her sister sits by the desk.

Hilary squeals in embarrassment, “Oh, my God, I am sorry!” She groans.

“Why? You did not say anything bad. If you need a loan, Hill, I could give it to you. As I said though, you’re going to need to work off the debt.”

Hilary plays with her hands, “That’s so nice of you Luna, really. However, are you sure? I don’t want to be a drain on your resources.”

Luna laughs, “Trust me, you are not. Plus, you are like family! I would love to help you.” She smiles.

“Thank you so much, Luna, I have to tell Joker, and dad, oh! And mom!” She jumps up, “Hey, Navi, I’ll call you later! We’re heading to the Citadel!” She yells before discounting.

Navi squeal in excitement, “We’re going to the Citadel!” She yells and starts to dance.

Luna was a bit taken aback by her moving her hips that way.

“Um, didn’t know you could dance like that, Navi.” She said.

Navi stops dancing and sits down on her bed, running ahead over her fringe.

“Yeah, uh…just something I learned. Doing the Shepard shuffle is embarrassing.” She whispers.

Luna chuckles, “Alright, but where did you learn it? Your boyfriend? James Vega?” Luna teases.

Navi panics, “We…he…no…what…hah!” She stutters.

Luna tilts her head, “So, he’s not your boyfriend?” she asks.

Navi shook her head, “Why does it feel like everyone wants to know about James and me? What about…so what are you up to, Navi? Or, how are your hobbies, Navi?” She complains.

“What are you up to, Navi? Not trying to mock you, I am curious.”

Navi took a deep breath, “Well! I am trying to figure out what I want to do to display my work to this event on the Citadel when we go back there. James and I visit the area and they said I could come back when I am finished with this change in hoverboard I am working on.”

“And that is?” Luna asks, and Navi was thankful she did not ask about James.

Beaming she stands up and walks over to her closet and pulls out a board. Placing it on the floor, she stands on it.

“Now, check this out, not only can you fly on it, but it can transform into something that a person needs on the fly! Get it! Fly! Hah!” Navi laughs.

Luna cringes, “Alright, I’m going to need you and Joker so stop hanging out now.”

Navi laughs and begins to talk more about her idea. Luna was impressed and listened to her the entire time as Navi beams about the changes.

It wasn’t long before they were both on Navi’s bed, watching a show. Luna was sitting on the bed, while Navi was laying on her legs. As she combs her fringe, Navi sighs as the couple kisses after their date and walk away, happy.

“Is everything okay?” Luna asks, looking down at her.

Navi was quiet, not knowing what to say. Is everything okay?

“No, why is it that, the older I get, the more I want to be with someone? I thought I would be normal and go at the world alone like mom! I’m just full of all these stupid hormones and I can’t stop thinking about being with people!” She complains.

Luna giggles, “Mom doesn’t go at it ‘alone’, she’s not with anyone though. It’s completely okay to want to be with someone. Just don’t become obsessed with the though. Besides, I do not think you want to be with just anyone, I think it’s just one person. Who goes by James?”

She sighs, “I don’t want to be looked at like I’m some stupid teenager who likes someone older. I have dreams, and hobbies, friends! Which by the way, I would love to go back to Omega and visit some friends. I’m sure they would love to see the advancement of EDI.”

“You’re dodging the question, Navi.”

Navi looks away from her, “Yes, it’s James. Ever since we kissed, I can’t stop thinking about him. God, I want to kiss his soft lips again. It was so weird and odd and…” She stops, feeling embarrassed.

“And?”

She shook her head, sitting up, she quickly tried to hide, but Luna was quick and grabs her arms.

“And what Navi? Come on, I’m your sister anything you say, it’s in confidence, and I could maybe give you some advice.”

“I want to have sex with him.” She mumbles, Luna looks at her shock, and Navi groans rushing for her pillow and hiding under it.

“Hey! Nothing wrong with sex, I would say you should wait, though; you…don’t want to be used, as I was when I was fifteen. Patience is not a bad thing.”

Navi mumbles.

“I can’t hear you under the pillow,”

“It’s fine because he would never want to have sex with me.” Navi grumbles, “I’m a Turian, and it’s just…too gross for him.”

"Why do you say that?" Luna glares, “When he kissed you, he said it was gross!?”

“What? No! He didn’t say anything, just smiled as I fumble for the hotel room key.” She stumbles. Her mandibles twitching quickly.

“Oh, then that means he likes you. I still don’t think you should just have sex with him. Start a relationship first to see if he wants you. Need to watch out for people who want to ‘try a Turian’.”

“What? You and Garrus had sex without starting a relationship!”

Luna rolls her eyes, “First of all, I had sex with him because it was for work. Two, it took us three years to finally become a couple with a friend with benefits added in along with the drama of it all.”

“See, and now you two are going strong!”

“We just started; the honeymoon phase is still there.” Luna laughs, “Really, Navi, you don’t want to start like that. Too young and inexperienced. You deserve to have a good relationship even if it ends in the long run or not. I got lucky; Garrus could have easily just wanted sex and disappeared after the mission.”

“I guess you are right. The last thing I need is James becoming a Theo.” She shivers.

“Ugh, Theo? Isn’t he the one who likes to baby you because of your size? Like, I tease you about how short you were, but that dude was…really weird.”

“God, yes! And it was so…wrong whenever he would force me into wearing these outfits. Like I enjoy anime, but…he took it way too far! All I ever was to him was some cute, short Loli,” Navi said angrily.

“I never saw you in those outfits? I didn’t even know there were outfits involved.”

“I…god, I am so naïve. I hid it from you and mommy. I felt ashamed for allowing him to do what he wanted with me. He almost manipulated me into having sex with him.” Navi whispers and Luna’s eyes grew wide.

“Wait, you guys almost had sex?!”

Navi looks away, “Yes, but I told him no. He kept trying while I was in a dress he wanted me to wear. I was able to fight him off of me, and stayed with a friend for a while.” She frowns, “I blamed myself the entire time, and never spoke up about it.”

Will James do the same thing to her? Manipulate her because of her lack of awareness? Use her because she small and ‘harmless’? 

So many secrets, so many mistakes. Repeatedly her mother would try to teach her, but it would go through one ear and out the other.

_Navi stares at the dead Turian on the ground with shock. Her mother walks over to her and gives her a sad look._

_“My little Turian, there are bad people in this world; you mustn’t let them trick you.” She said, and they left the area with Navi still looking back at the dead Turian, who tried to rape her._

Hitting her head with her hands, she tries to push the thoughts away of the time she was doing some part-time work at old man Hilin's house. Remembering when he would ask her to do odd things, and how touchy he was. But…he’s just an old Turian, he wouldn’t….

“Navi?” Luna asks, grabbing her hands to stop her from hurting herself.

“Yes?” She swallows.

“Are you okay?”

Navi closes her eyes, “No, I’m sacred…Luna,” she mumbles, curling into a ball.

Luna took her in her arms, “It’s okay, Navi. I’m right here for you.”

“I just…can’t believe I let these things happened to me. I never thought it was that bad." She glares ahead of Luna, "They used me for their sick fantasies and manipulated me into doing things that I felt was wrong, but they convinced me it wasn't. How couldn’t I see that? I don’t understand.” She whimpers.

Luna bends and kisses her fringe, “I…I’m so sorry for neglecting you, Navi. I should have been there for you. Mom said everything was okay on Omega with Mordin. I shouldn’t have…brought mom along with me on my trips.” She apologizes.

“That’s the thing, I wasn’t neglected! Mom was there for me, you were there for me. I just didn’t learn. Remember how I met Garrus? He gave huge red flags, but I was too stupid-”

“Stop calling yourself stupid, Navi and Garrus was a good guy. Everything turned out alright.”

“I was just lucky it was Garrus, and not someone else.”

They grew quiet as the vid plays. Navi stares at the wall and begins to think about the past.

“Mom always warns me, told me not to be naïve, but I kept doing it." She sighs, "Sure, there were times I figured it out after I was called out on it, but fuck, I should have known better.” She said.

“Navi, please stop blaming yourself. You are a victim, those fucks!” She growls, “Shouldn’t have done those things to you.” Luna whispers.

“But it was bad like, really bad. Right now, I can’t stop thinking of all the scenarios I could have been dead, raped, tortured! All because I didn’t have common sense!” She shouts, glaring at the ceiling.

“We all make mistakes sometimes, Navi; it’s the learning part that keeps us going. I know what happened was hard, but you are strong, Naviana, and it’s going to be okay.” She whispers as she caresses her cheek, feeling her mandibles twitch in sadness and anger.

Navi whimpers, “I’m just…I’m just scared James will be like the others.”

Luna chuckles, "Don't be like me, Navi. Talk to him, if you are scared. I trust that he would be understanding."

***

Waking up the next day, Navi groans and shifts in her bed to her side. A chime from her Omni-tool rang and she looks to see who it was.

James

Should she keep ignoring him? Maybe, just let him forget her? He hasn’t done anything to her at all. So, why freak out about it? If anything, he’s been amazing to her!

She sighs and looks back at the message.

‘Hey, preparing for a mission right now. Hope we could talk before I head out.’- J

Navi lays on her back and stares at the ceiling, wondering what she should do. Bringing up her arm to look at her Omni-tool, she glares, no more trying to hide.

‘A mission, huh? My sister is heading on a mission today as well.’ - N

‘Oh? What’s the mission about?’ - J

‘Classified xD’- N

‘Lol, fine be like that. My mission is classified as well!’ - J

‘That’s fine:], I wasn’t going to ask about it anyway :P’- N

‘You wound me, Navi.’ - J

Navi? Why did he say her name? What about her nickname? Do not panic, Navi, just relax.

‘Navi? Not, Tiny?’ - N

‘Just thought idk…’ - J

‘James?’ - N

‘Can I call you?’ - J

Sitting up, Navi rubs her arms in nervousness and feeling chilly.

‘Ok’- N

A minute went by, and Navi pulls her knees to her chest. Why was it taking so long for him to call?

A chime made her gasp in shock, before answering.

“Hey, how’s it going?” James whispers.

“Why are you whispering?” She whispers back before giggling, “Scared to get caught talking to some girl on your Omni-tool?”

He laughs, “Well, a little. I should be focusing on preparing, but I’m hiding out in the storage area.”

“Sounds bad. Maybe, we should talk later?”

“What? No, it’s fine. Look, I want to talk about what happened.” He sighs, “You’ve been avoiding me as of late, and I fear I fucked up.”

She grew quiet, wondering what to say.

“Navi?”

“Again with the name. I think I got used to you calling me Tiny.” She nervously laughs hoping not to sound weird.

“Sorry, I don’t mean…” He sighs again.

“You’re sighing a lot lately.”

“Because you’ve been avoiding me, Navi!” He groans and she winces, “Sorry…I’m just…just, tell me if I fucked up. Tell me if you don’t want to be friends anymore.” He whispers sadly, she could hear the hurt in his voice.

“I’m sorry James. It’s just…after we kissed. It brought up a lot of repressed memories of what happened to me when I was younger.”

“What….what happened?” He asked angrily, “Do I need to-”

“My nativity got me in trouble many times and it was bad, but it could have been worse.” She sighs, “They started out as nice people and I didn’t understand. Said I was cute and nice. Eventually, manipulating me, taking advantage of my size and my strength.”

“Navi…”

“I never told my mother, because I was a bit scared of how she would react. I knew how overprotective she was and honestly, I wanted to rebel. I told you about her stillbirth and how she used to treat me.”

“Yeah, I remember.”

“When we kissed. I was confused, happy, and sexually aroused. Even though I was so happy, the seed of doubt began to form. I begin to think you just did it because I was ‘cute’ and ‘nice’, easy to exploit.” She plays with a string, almost embarrassed to explain this to him.

“Fuck…I…no I just…I thought you liked me. The signs were there, at least I think?” He groans, “I’m sorry, Navi. Please, forgive me.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong. What those assholes did to me, when I was younger, was wrong.”

“But-”

“I’m seventeen, and whether anyone likes it or not, there is nothing wrong with me kissing you. I’m not like before. Being on the Normandy helped me grow and mature.”

Navi starts to play with the sheets covering her legs as she waits for James to speak again. It was quiet and she was starting to worry.

“James?”

“Oh! Sorry, was getting in a bit of trouble.

“Should I get off?”

“What? No, it’s fine. I’m glad you don’t hate me, by the way.”

She giggles, “Hate you! No! I l-like you.” She stutters.

He coughs, “I like you to, Tiny.” He chuckles.

She internally squeals before laying down on the bed and thinking what this all means. Should they date? He’s in the military; would he have time for dating? She is going to go to college on the Citadel, should she date?

“Tiny, everything okay? You went quiet.”

“S…sorry, um, just thinking of what this all means. I mean, we have different lives right now, and I play on going to college on the Citadel. And you’re in the military. Plus, I don’t really want to start a relationship.”

“Well, that’s fine I-

“And what about your family?! What would they think of me being a Turian!?”

“My family isn’t-

“What about sex!? I’m a virgin, James! Oh, my God…I’m going to need to talk to my sister about sex with a different species!?” She panics speaking fast.

“Naviana! Damn! Slow down!” James yells over her.

Navi gasps, “I’m sorry…was panicking.”

“Yeah, you were.” He laughs, “Relax, okay. Sex isn’t that important and I rather take things slow. Ever since I was eighteen, I’ve been moving quickly in relationships. Talk about a fast burn.” He chuckles.

“Fast burn?”

“Remember my old girlfriend? Ashley? She was older than me, and we dated when I was nineteen, remember?”

“I remember.” She tilts her head, “I think I saw her on Eden Prime months ago.”

“Wait, really?”

“I think.”

“Well, whatever. I told you how quickly that went. A few drinks, flirting, and other shit. The relationship lasted six months before we broke it off, and the last three was just dragging.”

“So, we’ll go slowly. We don’t have to be in a relationship. Just, building to it? Because honestly, I need to do more growing. I trust you, but I have some things I need to work on.”

“That’s alright, I understand. As I said, I want to take things slow.”

“Thank god. I was not ready to speak to my sister about sex.” She giggles and he laughs.

After a few more minutes, she heard him walking around.

“Hey, I need to go alright. Talk to you later?”

“Yeah! Stay safe!”

“Bye, Tiny.”

“Wait!”

“Huh?”

“How slow?”

“I mean, just friends slow? I guess if you want we could hold hands?” He said nervously.

“That’s way to slow! Kissing and holding hands is fine!” She quickly said.

He laughs, “Your wish is my command, Navi, but I really have to go. Bye.”

“Bye!” She almost squeals.

***

Luna came out of the shuttle, pulling down her hood and taking off her breathing mask. With a glare, she quickly made her way to the elevator.

“Joker I need you to get us out of here right now! We need to make our way to Korlus.” She commands turning around to see Garrus behind her, entering the elevator with her.

“Aye, Aye Commander.”

“Hopefully we get there as quickly as possible. Finally, we can put an end to Dr.Tunile and Maelon.” Garrus said crossing his arm, and leaning against the elevator wall.

Luna bit her fingers, “Fuck, this is stressing me out. I talked to the Shadow broker, and he wasn’t too happy about me taking so damn long trying to stop this!”

“Really? Why?”

She sighs, “Having the Krogan rebellion 2.0 is bad for business. I told him I could handle it, and to not have other people get in my way.”

“Who would be the other people?”

“Other agents. People who would want the score. Do you even know the pay I am going to get if we stop this?” Her eye grew wide, “Fuck if I would ever have other people in on it. I’m glad I have his trust.” She whispers, biting her finger again.

“Luna, stop that,” He grabs her hand, “Ruining the skin around your fingers.” He comments, looking at the bleeding.

She groans, “I can’t help it. I can go on vacation after this! Moreover, I don’t want a Krogan Rebellion 2.0. Either most likely, the Krogans will be get wiped out, or they will wipe us out! You saw those brutes if we don’t get this under control…” She panics.

The elevator stops and they made it to deck two. Walking onto the bridge, she starts to study how long it’s going to take to get there.

Garrus leans on the railing “Don’t panic. We got this, okay?” He said in a reassuring tone.

Luna turns to him, reaches out her hand, and she touches his left mandible; smiling.

A cough came from behind them and they turn to see Uvek walking out from her mother's lap. Luna crosses her arms and looks at him questionably.

“I’m assuming you want to join us?” She asks.

He nods, “Yes, I could help sabotage since I know their secrets.”

She looks at Garrus who gave her a look of ‘why not?’

Narrowing her eyes at Uvek, “You even try to betray me-”

“It won’t happen. I do not have allegiance towards the Blue Suns. I do ask…I ask to show mercy to Tarak’s second in command.”

“I’m assuming it’s the woman who betrayed you?” He nods, “Then why?”

“Because I love her, and I rather die than see her dead.”

“Fine, once this is over you can deal with her yourself. Where ever you may go.” She said before turning back towards the Galaxy map.

***

While in the shuttle Luna was talking to Uvek about the plan and how they plan to get to the center of it all, where Dr.Tunile would most likely be.

“So, do you have any information about this base we should know?” Luna asks.

“Yes, it's not a well-protected place, so if you follow my lead, we will get to the central area in no time.” Uvek states.

Luna nods at him and looks at Garrus who was typing something on his Omni-tool. Jack was standing up, holding on a bar to keep steady from the turbulence while Urz yawned.

It was not long before they finally made it on the ground. Uvek took point and the rest held their guns up, ready for anything.

Walking the area, they notice the dead bodies of Blue Sun members and Krogans in black armor. Luna was confused about where the Krogans came from.

“Are these the cloned Krogans?” She asks as they pass by another set of bodies indicating a battle happened there.

“Cult members, Luna, I told you about them.” Garrus points out and she nods.

Uvek was going to say something, but Urz starts to bark and rushes forward, without Garrus’ command.

“Urz!” Garrus yells, and when the Varren did not turn around he and the others rushes after him.

It was not long until they saw Urz barking at a scared Blue Sun merc, standing on top of something to keep away from him.

“Get back!” He shouts in fear.

Garrus walks over to the merc and narrows his eyes.

“Who are you? And what is going on here?” He asks, and a loud explosion happens, causing the merc to fall off the place and Urz was ready to attack him.

Luna grabs the varren and calms him down.

“I…I….I just want to go home!” He screams, and they could tell he was just a young kid. Garrus shook his head.

“What the hell is going on here? Who are these Krogans?”

The kid looks at the Krogans in black and his eyes went wide, “They’re with that….that female Krogan! Some kind of cult! Man, the shit they were saying was insane! Something about wanting to cure the Genophage!”

Luna looks at Garrus, “Now a cult? This just keeps getting better and better” She rolls her eyes.

Uvek grabs him, “Where the hell is Tarak? Where is Okeer? Did they manage to get the cloned Krogans?” He growls, shaking the merc

“I…I…yes! Okay! Yes, they did it. But the Krogans were complete trash! So we used them as target practice, but then those Krogans came, and ruined everything!” He screams and sobs, snot running down his nose.

Luna checks her gun and starts walking ahead, “Leave him Uvek, we have a job to do. We got what we needed.”

Uvek nods and throws the kid on the ground, and they set out.

As they ran across the area, following Uvek, they dealt with multiple cult Krogans and Blue Suns.

Jack charges into a raging Krogan causing him to fly off from her impact, and before the others could react; she jumps into the air with biotics and slams the ground. With the ripple effect, the Krogan few in different directions.

Garrus dodges a charging Krogan, with his jets, and goes invisible. Throwing a proximity mine onto the Krogan, he shot it with his sniper, causing it to explode and the Krogan with it. Urz jumps onto the back of a merc, who starts to scream from the pain, and Garrus turns around with his sniper up, shooting him in the face.

Uvek was running and using his assault rifle to shoot at any of the enemies in his way. Turning to his right, he saw Turian flacking Jack. Rushing over, he uses his ballistic blades at the Turian, causing him to scream in pain, and Jack turns around using a warp on him.

This caused an explosion, and Jack laughs while sticking up her middle finger at the dead Turian.

“Thanks!” She yells, before charging at another enemy.

He was going to say you’re welcome, until he saw her, Jentha. His eyes grew wide when looking at her. Anger is shown on her face as she stares at him, before rushing away. Without hesitation, he rushes after her.

Luna uses electric slash at three enemies, before rushing to cover, and grabbing her black widow. Aiming, she starts quickly snipes at the Krogan cultist and mercs fighting each other, and her team.

Using her tactical cloak, she rushes the battlefield quickly to get to a different spot, since her previous spot was going to become overwhelmed.

She rushes at a Blue Sun heavy and cuts them down, taking their spot.

“Hey,” She squeals seeing Garrus appear behind her.

“Fuck, Garrus! I need to upgrade my visor so I could see you!” She yells before shooting at a merc who was getting close to Jack.

He laughs, “Sorry, I saw you come over here and need to tell you that Uvek ran off somewhere,” He points, “over there! I don’t know what he’s doing, but we're wasting too much time fighting these fucks!” He yells.

She glares, “I knew he would betray us!”

“Well, he saved Jack, so, I don’t know about that.” He uses a stim, and Luna frowns.

“Honey, that’s your third one, maybe don’t use so much?”

He nods, “Sorry, but I have to, a lot is going on and you need to get to Uvek. He is the only one who can take you to where Dr.Tunile will be. I called for backup and they will arrive soon!” He shouts and snipes a Krogan in the head.

She looks at him but did not want to argue, she will talk about it later.

Nodding, she uses her now recharged tactical cloak, “Stay safe, Garrus! You too Jack!” She yells out and runs off, as Jack slams into another Krogan.

Luna quietly and quickly ran to find Uvek. If that piece of shit is going to betray them, she is going to rip him apart with her biotics.

“You were supposed to die!”

She heard and ran into cover. Looking over the rock cover she was behind, she saw a woman using a rocket launcher, and shooting Uvek, who was also behind cover.

“Why must you be this way!? What about the times we were together!” He screams.

She laughs, “Our times together?! You honestly thought I wanted you?! A Batarian!? HAH!” She laughs even louder.

Luna saw the look on Uvek face change from sadness to anger. Rushing out of cover, he aims his gun at her and starts shooting.

“I never cared about you,” She glares, shooting another rocket towards him, “I never wanted you! You were just a means to an end.” She growls, calling out an YMIR mech.

Uvek ran into cover when the mech starts to shoot at him. Luna uses overload, causing the shields to take a hit.

Turnings around, Uvek saw Luna rushing towards him while shooting the mech with her black widow.

“Commander?” He asks in shock.

“We need to find a way to get to her. I can sneak behind her and stab her,” She quickly said, pulling herself out of cover to shoot at the mech again.

He shook his head, “She’s mine,” He growls, clutching his assault rifle tightly.

Luna nods, “Alright, I’ll distract the mech.”

Using her tactical cloak, she rushes to another area and begins to shoot, gaining the attention of the mech.

“Whose this!? Another woman? You really do have a Human fetish huh?” She questions, throwing a bomb towards Luna.

Running away from the spot, Luna climbs up onto a storage unit and took cover from the onslaught of bullets by the mech and Jentha.

There was suddenly an explosion, and she brings her head up to see where it came from to see Uvek blow up another explosive barrel rolling towards where Jentha was. The woman screams as the area she was standing starts to break.

She quickly steadies herself and ran towards an exit, but Uvek shot at a weak support beam, which causes her to fall.

Luna uses an electric strike at the mech, causing it to explode. Panting, she looks towards Uvek, who was looking down at Jentha holding on for dear life.

“Please….please Uvek, save me. I’m sorry, I love you…I love you so much. You don’t understand Tarak, he…he forced me to leave you there. I had no choice!” She begs, screaming when she heard a beam drop.

Luna was surveying the area, checking to see if anyone else is around.

“You had a choice,” He whispers, and Jentha's eyes went wide as his foot lands onto her hand.

“No!” She screams the entire time, falling to her death.

Luna looks at him quietly, wondering what he is going to do.

“This way Commander.” He said, and Luna follows him.

It wasn’t long until they made it to the main lab, seeing a dead Tarak and Okeer, Luna to groans at the sight.

“Great, were late…” She grumbles, before walking around the room to see what’s going on.

Uvek went to a console and starts typing.

“There are vid logs here, Commander. An earlier and older entry.” He said.

“Play the older entry, first.”

On the screen, a female Krogan appears.

_“All I need is the formula, Okeer, and I will leave you alone.”_

_“I don’t think so, what you are doing is idiotic. We should focus on building strong Krogans to bring our race to the glory days! Not this stupid cure, bullshit you want to cry about.”_

_She glares, “I will have the formula whether you like it or not!”_

The log ends with Okeer speaking of increasing security. Uvek plays an earlier entry.

_“Thank you, old friend. You have given me exactly what I needed.” She chuckles._

_“How?”_

_“My lovely assistant, Rena Thanoptis. Don’t worry; she’s well out of your hands.”_

_A scream and thud come from Okeer._

_Dr. Tunile laughs, “I did tell you, I will have the data. And now that I do, my people will be heading towards your location to kill you and your idiotic mercs.” She smiles, “Tying up loose ends and all.”_

_“You won’t get away with this. If anything this will backfire on you,” He growls._

_“No, I will get away with this. After years, no, centuries of pain and suffering from our people. We will finally be able to get back what was taken from us.”_

_“The Children we have lost! The countless females who killed themselves after losing their babies! The men who fought because they have nothing to live for! And for what?! Because the Krogans of old forced the galaxy to do this to us!”_

_“No! Okeer! Our People would flourish once more! We will finally have families again! Our species will no longer deal with the pain of losing children right as they were born!”_

_“Goodbye, Okeer. May the void take you.”_ She said before it disconnects.

“When was this?” Luna asks, panicking.

Uvek looks and silently curses, turning towards Luna.

“A week ago, Commander. Must have been when we were trying to find this place.”

“Fuck.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> About the ages for Navi/James. Seventeen is a normal age to date someone older where I live (in other places it's younger) sorry not sorry if it offends you. 
> 
> The reason why I wanted to lean more into developing my OC's is mainly because I didn't want to have a full action chapter. It's exhausting to create action text tbh, but they are fun to write.


	29. Decent Into Madness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pain, Depression, Suicide, Blind Hope, she will do anything to achieve her goal. Even if she must lose herself.

She cries, holding as much as possible in her arms. All of them dead, all of them gone. They never stood a chance, never…got to live.

She sobs harder

“I’m sorry, Oklie.” The Krogan doctor whispers, touching her shoulder to calm her down.

She didn’t say anything just cries. She was so sure! So sure! To finally give birth this time around! A child, just one child! Giver her just one child! How many more times must she feel like this until she gets one fucking child!?

“Worthless,” She turns and gasps at the male Krogan glaring at her, “You said we could do it this time! You said we could have a child!”

“I….I….please, don’t leave me! Let’s… let us try again! I can do it! I know I can do it!” She begs, rushing towards him. He kicks her and walks away.

“I’ll find me another female. Someone not as worthless as this one.” He growls, walking away.

Oklie stares at the ground as tears ran down her face. She gasps as if her entire being was dying. Placing her head on the ground, she punches the ground softly, lacking any strength.

The doctor walks over to her, trying to help her up. Oklie didn’t move, she couldn’t move. The world has taken more from her, and now she has given up.

“Please, you must rest after giving birth. The body needs you to rest easy.” She whispers, but Oklie couldn’t move.

Her mind kept thinking of children running around, laughing, playing, doing school work. It was a beautiful future, a future that she has wished to happen for so long.

“I…I want a child. I want a child….I want a child.” She kept muttering.

“And you will find another male to give you one, but for now we must get you to rest. Your body is tired and weak. Come,” She said, and Oklie stands up with her help and walks back towards the bed.

As she rests, she stares at the sky, begging for this one chance to finally get what she wants, a child to call her own.

***

Oklie watches as the male walked out of her room. The fifth one to come by today.

As she lays there thinking and hoping for a chance at children, she sighs in sadness. Thoughts play within her mind as she dreams of the children in the future that will be within her arms.

A small smile plays on her face as she can hear the giggling and crying of her babies wanting attention. They were so beautiful, cute, the most important babies in the galaxy.

Then they were slowly dying, right in front of her and she gasps rushing around to save her babies. One by one, each of them stops crying, stops giggling.

“No, no!” She screams, trying to get them to come back!

She shoots up and gasps, breathing heavily as she looks around trying to figure out what just happened.

Standing up she walks towards the window and watching as the people, her people, walk across the land to their homes. More women than men around. More women willing to sell themselves just for a chance, a hope at being mothers.

A knock at the door causes her to turn around and look.

“Come in,” She said, and the door opens up. A male Krogan walks inside and looks at her with no emotions on his face. His only purpose being here is for pleasure, and a shot at being a father.

She walks over to the bed and lays there, staring him in the face, waiting for him to come to bed with her, and do his duty.

His armor came off, she closes her eyes, children crying, and laughter plays within her eyes.

Months later she drops to her knees in shame and pain. Before the doctor touches her arm, she screams.

Picking up things and throwing them around the room, she screams in anguish and anger. For so long she has tried! For so long she has waited! How long! How long must she wait to have children!?

She begins to sob after everything was on the ground. The doctor looks away in sadness, another clutch gone.

“Oklie you must rest, your bo-”

“Shut up! Just shut up!” She yells punching the ground.

“Please, I understand you are sad, bu-”

Getting up she pushes the doctor away and begins to punch at her, weakly. The doctor gasps and screams trying to calm her down, but it wasn’t working. Oklie was angry and wanted someone to pay for this!

Two large Krogan males walk inside as she screams and shouts. They restrain her, as she sobs, kicking and punching.

It wasn’t long until she felt a sharp prink to her body. Looking at the doctor, she slowly fell asleep.

Waking up, Oklie softly cries to herself. A failure again, someone who is worthless, once again. Should she even try again? Maybe she should just go into the desert and allow the Thresher maws to claim her life.

She doesn’t belong in the galaxy any longer. If she cannot have children, what is the point of experience? How is it that she cannot continue her legacy, but the other races can? There is a new race in this galaxy called humans, and even they can have children, but the Krogan? But, her people?!

No…they are not allowed such beauty in this lifetime. They are not allowed to have a legacy, not allowed to grow, and for what? Because the ancient people didn’t follow their rules? Because the ancient people favor warfare over economics? How dear they!? How dare they do this to them!

Not a lick of sympathy from others! Not a lick of empathy from others! How could they do this to them!?

She clutches her hand in a fist and glares in anger as her heart hardens. It’s because of them why she must see her clutches never born. It’s because of them why she isn’t allowed to have generations!

“Yes, it works! I was able to have my little one because of this cure.”

She looks up at the vid playing, an advertisement.

“Come down to Dr. Xile and you will be able to have your own baby.”

Oklie looks in shock as she stares at the Asari doctor named, Dr.Xile. Maybe, some people view the travesty that the Krogan people must endure. How beautiful it is to have others care for their wellbeing.

Using her Omni-tool she calls the number on the vid.

“Hello, this is Oklie Tunile, I would like to have the surgery.”

***

She was sick.

The side effects of the surgery were going to be brutal, she knew, but it's okay. Soon she’ll have a child of her own. They said only one baby will be alive, which is okay. One is better than zero.

She throws up.

It was painful, these side effects, but it’s okay. This will work, and she will have a baby of her own to hold and take care of. No more dead clutches. No more watching her little one go to the void after it just hatched. No more pain.

She lays there and looks at the television, trying to push away any more thoughts of pain. She smiles at the sight of babies getting taking care of even if they are aliens.

When she changes the channel, her eyes went wide, and her heart drops.

Dr.Xile was a liar and someone who pried on the hopeless for money and status.

She screams in her home and breaks everything within.

How could she?! How could she!?

Oklie throws up again from the pain, before getting up and leaving her home. This was it, this was the final straw; she was done.

“Baraka,” She whispers into the night. The female Krogan, Baraka, turns to her and smiles warmly at her.

“How are you Oklie? Have you thought about joining me?” She asks.

Oklie took a seat and stares into the vast desert.

“No, I wished to be blessed before I set out on my journey to finally let go of this hell.”

Baraka frowns, “Please, my friend, don’t. It’s not worth giving your life like this. Why don’t you join me, help the other fema-”

“No! I have made my decision, I no longer want to live. The last thing I need to see other women with clutches of eggs that are viable.”

“Life is too beautiful to give it away, Oklie. Please, reconsider.”

“Life is full of disgusting, vile, creatures known as the council races who care nothing about our people.” She looks at her, “Bless me, Baraka, I wish to leave now.” She whispers.

Baraka nods and stands up. As she begins the ritual, Oklie closes her eyes and silently cries. All she ever wanted was a child, a child to call her own.

“May the void take you, Oklie,” Baraka whispers, watching her walk deeper and deeper into the desert.

For days she has wondered, waiting for death to claim her, but nothing came. Even death finds her so worthless.

Dropping to her knees she sobs, wishing for the Thresher maw to finally claim her. Shall her death be slow, and not quick? Must she starve and lose the water within her body keeping her alive, so she can die?

A coughing sound was heard, and she looks to see a male Krogan laying there. With curiosity, she walks over to him.

“Wa..ter,” He calls out, and she stares at him. Looking around she saw a creature. Following it, lead her to some water, and the first thing she does was run towards it and drink from it contains. She wanted to die, but her body wished for it. Maybe, she could drown herself, but what about the male?

Taking a deep breath, she found something that could hold water and filled it up. As she took it to the male, she begins to think of what she should after. Leave him be, and kill herself somewhere else? Should she stay with him and help?

The male looks at her, breathing heavily. Taking the object that’s holding the water, she brought it to his lips for him to drink.

“Thank you,” He whispers, and she stares at him.

“You’re welcome.” She said.

In time she healed him back to full health. Bring him food and water when the time calls for it. As his strength came back he told her his name, Dr.Okeer, and how he was doing certain things that weren’t well-liked by his people, which called him to become exiled.

She continued to help him as she learned more about him, and the more she learned, the more she realized, he could do it…he could create a cure their people desperately need for the Genophage.

It wasn’t long before they left Tuchanka in the coming years. Soon they were located in different areas as Oklie learned more and more about the body and genetics.

Year after year she would ask him to create a cure, but he would tell her no, instead focus on what he believes in, which was a Krogan restoration. Oklie felt that was idiotic, but when she spoke of her concerns, he shut her up and told her he would stop teaching her things if she spoke ill of him again.

One day she couldn’t take it anymore and decided to leave, taking her knowledge and his research with her.

“If you won’t do it, then I will.” Were the last words she spoke to him before taking her leave.

Going back to Tuchanka was hard, but she has a better purpose, a new dream, one that can benefit her people. No longer is she just Oklie Tunile, but Dr.Tunile, and in time, a Paragon of her kind.

“Having to find Melon is going to be a bitch.” Oklie heard as she walks the camp of Clan Weyrloc, or what was clan Weyrloc.

“I mean how hard is it to find a Salarian?” She saw Turian in blue/black armor ask a brown skin Human in red/black armor.

She laughs, “You would be very surprised how hard it is to find a Salarian.” She types away at one of the terminals.

“I mean yes, but a Salarian doctor such as Maelon? The guy was sloppy in hiding the ‘cure’ details.” He said, crossing his arms.

The Human stops and looks at him, “Yes, but that doesn’t mean he’s an idiot. He was part of STG, and Dr.Mordin’s student.” She leans on the terminal, “Got to give credit, where credit is due. Come on, Vakarian.” She said.

He walks over to her and grabs her waist.

“I guess you’re right, Shepard,” he leans down to her level.

“When am I ever wrong exactly?” She whispers and they begin to kiss.

A Human and Turian…how odd, but hearing about a cure really sparked her interest. Who was this Maelon doctor? How close was he with the cure?

She shifts and a rock crumbles from her area, shit.

“Who’s there?! State your business now!” The Human, Shepard, yells.

Making sure she was fully hidden with her clothes, Oklie walks out to see the two with their guns pointed at her.

“A female Krogan?” Shepard asks.

“Hey, are you okay?” Vakarian asks her.

Oklie coughs, “I am fine, just wondering. I don’t know what’s going on. Our leader…I am confused.” She hopes they didn’t expect anything.

Shepard nods, “Yes, Clan Weyrloc leader is gone, and is replaced by Urdnot Wrex. I hope they didn’t mistreat you here. If so, please tell me, and I will make sure whoever hurt you will get their comeuppance.” She said with a smile.

Oklie shook her head, “No, I am fine, but thank you.” She nods, “I must go, and I wish to find any more females to join.” She whispers and walks away.

He sighs

“What’s wrong, Vakarian?”

“The more I meet the Krogans, I just…feel…bad for what happened, as if I was the one who used it on them.”

“Yeah…”

“Is it wrong to say I would still have done it?”

Oklie stops in her tracks and clutches her hands.

“The war that happened…I understand why it was needed, so no, I don’t think it’s wrong to say.”

With anger, she leaves. They don’t understand! They don’t understand!! How could they say such a thing!? How could they believe such a thing!? It’s only because they haven’t experienced it! Disgusting, vile, creatures!

Anger more anger, she wants them all to suffer after all they have done!

It didn’t take long to find Maelon after asking around and telling people she wanted to create a cure. Everyone thought she was delusional, but she had hope. Days went by before he showed up to her, asking if she really wanted to create a cure, and she said yes. She asked him about the cure, of course, he wasn’t forthcoming with the information and was playing ignorant at first. As time went on and their trust in each other increased, he opened up.

Days, weeks, months went by as they shared ideas. During this time she was able to gather people to her cause, she gave people hope from the hopeless and had people join because they thought the Genophage was wrong.

In time she became a Paragon to her followers, a mother to her followers, and a leader to her followers.

It was beautiful to finally be a mother to who people have entrusted and loved so very much. They will do anything for her, she just needs to ask.

So when the first Krogan asked to be a test subject to her experiment, she was happy, but when this test subject became a brute? Hope was slowly dwindling.

But her children didn’t disappoint. Her children joined her and wanted to help. So if they are test subjects? Then so be it.

Some did it willingly, and some were forced by her other children.

Eventually, one of her children working as a spy for her former teacher, Dr.Okeer, told her about his success in creating a perfect Krogan.

Sadly, the leader who was finically supporting him made sure to hide their location from her. It was annoying to wait for so long to find where her former boss was, but when a Blue Sun member was taken in for questioning? It was perfect.

Until she heard a certain Shepard and Vakarian found out about her plans and who was working with her.

This created a problem, a very large problem. They were getting closer and she couldn’t allow that! She needed to move fast. With anger, she told her daughter to find and give her the location as soon as possible.

And she did. With haste, they quickly made it to where he was, not before talking to him with a smile on her face. Knowing she was going to win, she was going to do what others could not do.

Now on Tuchanka, she was ready to give the galaxy her speech, show the galaxy what the council has done to them, show the galaxy the true Krogan pain the council wishes to hide, wish to bury! No longer will this secret be hidden.

But first, she must deal with a traitor among her. Her daughter, beautiful, but a fool.

“Are you ready, Paragon?”

Taking a breath, she smiles lovingly at her two children. Both of them, perfect in their own way. So…beautiful…the galaxy will now see what those Turians and Salarians have done to them.

She heard weeping, and turn to see her daughter…at least was her daughter. Walking over to her as she weeps, the Paragon touches her face. The Turian looks at her, sadness in her eyes.

“Please…I don’t want to die…I’m scared.” She sobs.

She sighs, “I understand, but you know what happens to people who betray us, my darling daughter. Remember, we do not such acts in this family, treachery will be punished.”

“I’m sorry! Please!” She screams.

The Paragon sighs again and walks over to a cage that had a huffing and growling sound to it. As she was typing to open the cage, the Turian behind her screams and begs for her not to do this.

“Y…you will all die! You will all die! The Krogans will never be accepted in the galaxy! The council will destroy you all!”

The Paragon turns around and smiles at her.

“Well, I don’t think that will ever happen. You see the Galaxy, hurts, just like us.” She said,

The Turian’s eyes grew wide as she realizes what is coming. She begins to breathe hard and heavily.

“Please! Why must you do this!? There must be a better way!”

“No, there is no other way. I will not wait any longer, and there is no reason to. The answer is now.” She said, before hitting a button and the brute comes out, racing towards the Turian.

As she screams, the Paragon watches. She hates having to do this to her children, but they needed to learn.

“May the void claim your soul, for you are hurting inside,” She starts to chant as the screaming continues, “Keep this one safe with you elder spirits.” The screaming starts to die down, “She has sinned, and now, she will rest.” She finishes, as the Turians scream mutes.

“Paragon, the audio is ready. You can give your beautiful speech to the galaxy.”

“Thank you, my child, you have done well by me.” Kissing the woman on her head, she walks away.

***

_“For years, no centuries we, the Krogan people, have suffered because of the Genophage.”_

Luna’s eyes went wide as she stares at the screen.

“Joker, tell me how close are we to Tuchanka?!” She shouts.

“We’re going as fast as we can, Commander. It shouldn’t take too long, though.” He said.

Luna kept biting into her fingers and tore the skin causing it to bleed. Tasting the blood, she looks down and groans in annoyance.

“Fuck, I can’t believe this is happening! Where the hell is Garrus?” She asks.

“He’s talking to the Council at the moment, Commander” EDI states.

With a nod, Luna quickly made her way to the elevator. Once on deck 2, she rushes towards the QEC to talk to Garrus, and to see what the Council is planning on doing.

“We cannot bomb Tuchanka!” The Turian Councilor said to the Salarian Councilor.

“And why the hell not? If we don’t do something about this we are going to deal with a big crisis at hand!”

“We must not panic, and we…I agree with Sparatus. Harming Tuchanka will reflect poorly against us.” Tevos calmly said but can hear the fear in her voice.

Udina shook his head, “It’s already out in the open, so what if a few more Krogan die. We cannot let this ‘cure’ go out to the public!” He shouts.

Garrus turns around to see Luna walk inside biting her fingers like crazy. When he saw the blood, he frowns and grabs her hand.

“Stop,” he grumbles, “can have you ruining your trigger finger.” He chuckles as she rolls her eyes.

“Yeah well, there is a good chance that ‘cure’ is going to change all the Krogans into brutes, and it’s just not looking good, okay?”

He turns back to the bickering Council, “Yeah, a lot of indecision is happening at the moment. Right now they are trying to figure out if they should bomb Tuchanka right now. Not the whole planet, of course, just the area the cultist are.” He said.

Luna glares at them, “You can’t bomb Tuchanka! There are innocent people there and the Krogan people have gone through enough! Find a different way to deal with this!”

“Who do you think you are? You have no right to demand anything to us!” Valern growls at her.

“You idiots are going to cause infighting and galactic instability. Do you not see what is being portrayed right now?! The Council is not looked at as horrible people who cause countless of stillbirths among the Krogan people! What do you think is going to happen if you fuckers blew up part of Tuchanka?!”

They looked at each other and after a moment Tevos spoke.

“You are correct, Shepard. But, we simply can’t allow this cure to go through.”

“I know why this ‘cure’ can’t go through, since there is a good chance this could mutate the Krogan people. But, why is it so hard to help the Krogan people? Why can’t you give them a Genophage that doesn’t cause stillbirths?” She asks.

“We did not intend…for that to happen. It was only to stabilize their birthrate.” Valern points out.

“Yeah, it stabilized it alright.”

“The Krogans cause their own destruction! They were to simply too idiotic to stop fighting! If they would have ju-”

“If you have children of your own, you should know the feeling of love for the small child. When that baby lays in your arms not breathing, there is an indescribable pain. That pain burrows deep inside, not able to ever go away. Once you have lost a child, that child will never be able to grow and see the world you see.” Laena spoke cutting everyone off.

“Mom…”

“The Krogan’s have fought for centuries now, and now they are tired. They will do anything to be able to stop feeling this pain. You are right, the Krogan people would not stop fighting causing their numbers to dwindle.” She glares at the Valaren, “But, while you sit on your ass there are other Krogans trying to survive, trying to bring new life into this world, with no help.”

Turning on a vid within the room, they saw crying female Krogans holding their deceased children. Eggs not viable, eggs not hatched.

“It’s time to face reality. Your image is damaged. The people of the galaxy have seen the truth, and it hurts. There was a pain in the galaxy and now, it’s time to heal it.” She coughs, “Mordin and I have created an actual cure. One that could benefit the Krogan people, and the galaxy.”

“How can we trust you? How do we know you are not just trying to create the Krogans of old?” Udina said.

Laena glares at him, “Hush, Human.” He looks at her with shock, “I agree with the Genophage, but to a point. The Krogans were growing out of control and were causing unbelievable harm. This does not mean you should force them to live with watching their children die. As I said before, the pain is indescribable and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.”

“What does the cure, you and Dr.Mordin created, do exactly?” Tevos asks.

“Simple, what the Genophage supposed to do. Cull the birthrate of the Krogans, but instead of having to live through trauma day in and day out, they will be able to have children of their own. Instead of one thousand children, it would be between one and ten.”

“Will this apply to all the women?”

“Of course, it’s not as if it didn’t beforehand. I talked to my friend about female Krogans and if they are all able to have children,” Laena starts.

“Well, they all should, just not one thou-”

“It’s a yes and no answer, only some female Krogans can have a viable child. Most are not as…fortune, and if they are it would be an extremely long time, with the added trauma of stillbirths. Which I believe happened with Dr.Tunile.” Leana said, cutting him off.

“So what happens if we agree to this?” Tevos ask, Udina was about to speak, but she glares at him.

Laena smiles, “Well for one, you will fix your image across the galaxy. What the Council of old did to the Krogans was unfortunate, but what about the Council of new? They are the ones to fix past mistakes!” She said, and they looked at each other.

“That…sounds good, how will the cure be distributed?” Sparatus asks.

“Injection, and it will be handle with my good friend, Urdnot Wrex. Only Krogans who follow his rule will be given the cure.”

“And how can we know they will follow his rule?”

“Because they want this cure. He will also have someone by his side who will also be a leader their people need.”

“And if they get out of hand? What then?”

“They can’t do anything. They will still be demilitarized. All I ask, or they ask, is for help rebuilding Tuchanka. They need homes, schools, hospitals, and jobs that don’t only deal with fighting. This cure is a cure for many things, not just to help them have children.”

The Council turn to each other and place themselves on mute as the spoke.

Luna turns to her mother who sighs.

“Think they would do it?”

“Of course, what other plan do they have? Blowing up Tuchanka so the entire galaxy end in a divided of who support the Krogans and who doesn’t?”

Garrus tilts his head, “I feel like this was planned.”

Laena laughs, “I was planning to do the same thing Dr.Tunile did. What’s the best way to get politicians to listen? Destroy public opinion about them. Force them to seek change.” She sighs, “It’s sad something like this needs to happen for things to finally see change.”

“We agree to your terms, as there isn’t much of a choice in the matter,” Tevos said.

“Uh…commander…you’re going to want to see this.” Joker calls out.

They all turn towards the vid to see Dr.Tunile giving the ‘cure’ to a Krogan.

 _“This, my people are a Krogan my old teacher has created! I know I have failed in the past, but I could assure you, this time its right.”_ She said before injecting the Krogan with the ‘cure’.

After some time the Krogan woke up looking around oddly, but he hasn’t changed at all. Luna tilts her head.

“Maybe, it works?” She questions, happy that she doesn’t have to deal with brutes.

“This isn’t the plan, Laena!” Valern yells.

Dr.Tunile smiles, _“Right now we only have enough for me and my children, but soon, we will have the cure for every Krogan!”_ She shouts and everyone cheers.

_“No more pain!”_

_“No more suffering!”_

_“Finally we will be free from this plague!”_

She smiles and each of the Krogans took their fair share of the cure, Dr.Tunile included.

“Commander we're here on Tuchanka, got as close as we can. You’re going to need to take the shuttle to get closer if you want to have everyone join you. The Mako is too small for you all.”

“Alright Joker,” She turns to Garrus and nods at him, “EDI, inform everyone to get onto the shuttle, now.”

“As you command, Commander.”

“Luna,” She turns to Laena and gave her a questionable look, “Look,”

Turning towards the vid she saw the Krogans were starting to mutate and turn into brutes. Luna begins to freak out as they fought and killed the other cult members who were not Krogans. In a shocking twist of events, a Krogan went to attack one of the brutes, suddenly, the brute bit into him, causing him to bleed out, but instead of dying, he transformed into a brute itself.

“This isn’t good,” Laena said, while the Councilors look in shock and fear.

“What do we do, mom? Should we let the Council…?”

“No, that would hit not only the changed cultist but innocent Krogans around the area.” She touches her chin in thought, “Mordin has created a paralyzing agent for brutes. We could use it against the brutes and stabilize them. Unfortunately, because of them changing, the brutes are forever changed.”

“Which means we need to kill them,” She groans, “But the ‘cure’ has been modified, would it work for these brutes?” Luna asks.

“It should, I have faith in Mordin. While I and Mordin create a bomb, you need to contain this outbreak. If these infected brutes hit the bigger cities of Tuchanka…” She sighs, “We would have no choice in the matter and the Krogan people will become extinct.”

“Mom, you need to inform Wrex about the situation!” She calls out and runs out of the QCE heading towards the shuttle bay.

***

“Alright were looking at a two-team situation here. Garrus you will take control of b-team, and I will command A-team.” Luna starts as they rode in the shuttle.

“Zaeed, Jack, and Uvek will be with me then,” Garrus said.

Luna nods, “Kasumi, Jacob, Tali, you guys are with me. We need to secure the area for the bomb and make sure each area is covered. We don’t have to fight every brute, we just need a clear area for the bomb.”

“Do we have an area in mind?” Kasumi asks.

Luna was about to say something when her Omni-tool chimes. Lifting her arms to see who it was, she realizes its Wrex.

“Shepard! Heard from Laena what to expect when we get there!”

“Yeah, looks like this is going to get out of hand if the virus leaves the borders and into the city, which would ultimately force the Council hand.”

“Fuck…”

“But we have a plan, the problem is, we need to find an area to place the bomb to hit all the brutes. Right now mom and Mordin are applying the finishing touches.”

“So, you need access to the center of the area?” Wrex asks.

“Yes, it’s important we plant it there. This will allow the paralyzing agent to reach each corner of the city.”

Wrex didn’t say anything for a while, and Luna was getting a little bit worried.

“Alright, I talked to my people. We will help get you there!”

“Did my mother tell you what could happen if any of the Krogans are bitten?”

“Yeah, don’t worry I understand. Right now we have borders set up and a backup plan if anything should happen. We’re also evacuating people as we speak!”

“Great, we will meet you there.”

Once the call has ended everyone talked among themselves. Luna shook her head at what’s happening, almost in shock, the ‘cure’ has mutated so bad it can transfer over to the Krogans with just one bite.

“So, I say after this we deserve a vacation,” Garrus said with a chuckle.

She smiles at him, “A vacation does sound good. Where would you like to go?”

“Someplace tropical? Heard of this beautiful planet with an underwater hotel we could visit.” His mandible twitches and she giggles.

“Well, big guy, I would love that. Maybe we could have a proper date.”

A thud was heard and they ready their guns.

“Commander it’s too hot for me to stay here! Please stay safe!” Kenn calls out.

Leaving the shuttle they enter the battlefield of rampaging brutes. Garrus instantly begin commanding orders to his team while Luna does the same as they rush forward.

Knowing that these brutes are not easy to deal with, Luna channels her biotics into her sword and uses a biotic slash. From the corner of her eyes, she saw a brute’s arm about to punch her. Ducking with only a piece of her hair getting clipped, she spins around and stabs it into its chest.

The brute screams in pain as she twists the sword deeper inside and pumps more biotic energy into it. Jumping back, sword in hand, she stares at the dead brute before turning around and slashing at another brute after Tali uses incinerate.

Luna looks over to her, “Nice one!” She yells, and Tali nods. Calling out her drone, Chatikka, to attack the brutes. It wasn’t as powerful, but it was a good distraction for Luna to use her abilities on it.

With her shotgun in hand and an armor-piercing mod installed, Tali shoots at them as close as she could be without them killing her. Whenever a brute got close, her drone will come to the rescue to distract them from her.

A loud growl was heard, and she turns around to see a brute right in front of her about to swing. Using her defense drone, she squeals in shock.

Kasumi went invisible and plants a bomb onto the brute, and quickly causes it to explode as she shot at the planted bomb. Using overlord, she shocks the same brute with as much strength as her overlord can muster. Tali gasps and gave a thank you to her for saving her life.

Suddenly, as she was laughing and giving Tali a welcome, Kasumi was grabbed and pulled away from the side. She gasps in fear before looking behind her to see Jacob.

“You okay?” He asks and she looks at him with a wide eye.

“Yes? What…almost happened?” She turns to see a brute picking itself up. Jacob glares and quickly rushes in front of Kasumi as the brute begins to charge.

A shield appears out of his hand and he blocks the attack. Surprisingly it was strong enough to force the brute back, but Jacob also was flung back.

Using incinerate against the brute, Jacob looks at Kasumi, who quickly uses Cryo blast, causing a tech explosion against the thing.

With it, dead Kasumi gave a breath of relief, before turning around when she heard another yell from a charging brute. Jacob readied his shield again.

“Together,” He said and she nods.

Luna rushes ahead using another biotic slash at a charging brute and dodges out of the way. Another brute appears before her and she glares, taking out her sniper she begins to shoot at the damn thing when a blue/red energy ball pushes the brute far away.

Jack stood there, a grin on her face, as she laughs. Charging forward again at the brute, she hits it again before jumping into the air momentarily and slamming the ground, causing a biotic wave. With her shotgun in hand, she shot at it until it was dead.

“Luna! We’re getting closer!” Garrus yells out to her, and she turns to see the center of the city where Dr.Tunile held her speech.

Zaeed uses his assault rifle to shoot at oncoming brutes, and throws incinerate grenades, catching some of the brutes on fire. Taking out some more frags, he quickly threw them at the brutes causing multiple explosions.

“Fuck you, goddamn assholes!” He shouts as he shoots into the brutes, nailing some in the head. Jack charges in front of him and he quickly made sure not to shoot at her as she uses another slam attack onto the ground, causing the brutes to become unstable.

“Keep shooting them, dad!” She calls out and he nods, reloading his clips and shooting more into the pack of brutes. When one was charging at him, Jack glares and charges at the brute aiming at Zaeed. As she was charging, she uses a warp, causing it to shift position. When she hits the brute, it goes flying into a few buildings.

Turning towards him Jack look to see if he was alright. He nods at her and she grins going back into the fight. With a grin of his own, Zaeed uses his Hawk Missile launcher at brutes trying to recover, which killed multiple of them.

Uvek uses his ballistic blades at a brute that was able to attack him. This causing it to stagger, before he hits a button to create an explosion. The brute screams in shock, as he took his assault rifle and shoot at the roaring brute.

When another brute was going to attack him, he uses his blade armor, and Omni-blade to stab at the brute. Uvek wasn’t scared to be too close to it. He knew his own straight and weakness, although, having blade armor does help, as the brute roars in pain after coming into contact with it.

Wiping a bit of blood from getting hit by the damn thing, he spits onto the ground and aims his gun at the brute again.

“You have to try harder than that to get me down, fucking abomination.” He growls as the brute stands back up. Running towards the brute, he winds up his Omni-tool gauntlet, and before the brute could do anything, he punches the shit out of it in its face, causing the face to cave in.

Jack looks at him in shock and wide-eyed as she was ready to back him up, because what he was going to do what fucking stupid.

“What the fuck?” She said walking over to the now-dead brute.

He looks at her, “What, never saw something like this?” he chuckles.

She laughs and shook her head, “That gauntlet is fucking powerful. You should make one for me.” She said, crossing her arms with a smile on her face still staring at the dead brute.

He looks at her and smiles, “In the future if we survive this.” He said.

She punches his arm and rolls her eyes, “If you keep throwing your punches like that? I think we’ll be just fine.” She chuckles before running off, “Let’s go, Shep wouldn’t be happy if we’re not with her!” She calls back to him.

He smiles as he stares at her ass and tilting his head when a punch to the head causes him to look at a very pissed off Zaeed.

“Eyes not there, Batarian,” He growls and runs ahead. Uvek shook his head and ran after them.

Once Luna made it to the center of the city, she saw Dr.Tunile in her brute form sitting there as if questioning everything.

“Luna,” She heard from her Omni-tool.

“Mom? How close are you to the center of the city? We made it, just waiting for the bomb to be deployed.”

“We’re close, but the brute there we need it either moved or dead or it will ruin out chance.”

“That brute is Dr.Tunile, and she is much bigger than the other brutes we faced so far,” Luna said, watching as Dr.Tunile looks over to something that moved. Following her gaze, she saw Maelon.

“H…elp! Me! Please!” He screams, finally getting up on his feet and running.

Dr.Tunile roars, “You!” She barks and rushes after the running Salarian.

Quickly, Luna moves to save him from death. Garrus starts to shoot at the running Dr.Tunile, while the others hold of any brutes coming their way.

Maelon ran for his life, trying to reach Luna. Using her biotics she tries to shield them from the blow of Dr.Tunile, but she was too strong and punches forward towards Luna, causing her to fly back in a broken building.

Garrus puts his sniper away and runs to where Luna is. Once he got to her location she was coughing and spitting up blood while holding her side.

“Luna!” He helps her sit up.

“T...thanks, fuck, that shit hurts.” She gasps, looking over to Maelon she watches she Dr.Tunile grabs the Salarian by the neck with her claw-like hand.

“P…please! Dr.Tunile!”

“You…l...ied! Lia...r! Lo...ok…What…you..did!” She screams squeezing his neck. Maelon coughs and sobs.

“I…told you…we…needed to…tes…t! You…di…dn’t….wan..t…to…wait!” He yells.

“No…time! You Die!”

Luna’s eyes went wide as she watches the Salaran’s head pop off its body. Throwing the body away, Dr.Tunile roars in anguish.

Taking in a deep breath, Luna stands up shakily.

“You need to rest, let me handle this,” Garrus commanded.

“I’m fine,” Looking at the panting brute, “But, I am going to need you to trust me. Watch my back and trust me,” She said to him as she turns to look at him, her eyes slowly becoming black.

Determinedly, he nods, taking out his assault rifle, and standing beside her.

“When this is over, we meet at a bar.” He said, and she giggles.

“Alright, it’s a date.” She said and rushes forward into the now charging Dr.Tunile.

Before Dr.Tunile could land a hit on her, Luna uses her tactical cloak while dodging the massive brute. She then stabs her sword into its chest, causing it to scream out in pain. Garrus uses his jet pack to kick it in the fact before emptying his clip into the brute.

With a roar, she grabs a nearby rock and threw it at Garrus, who dodges out of the way, but gets a punch in the gut causing him to fly off. Luna gasps in horror, but remains calm, and uses a biotic slash towards Dr.Tunile.

Dr.Tunile growls getting up from the attack and charges at Luna when a proximity bomb lands on her face and blows up. She screams in anguish, punching at the air. Taking this opportunity, Luna pumps as much biotic energy into her sword again and slashes towards the brute.

Suddenly she heard a Krogan yelling, thinking it was Wrex, Luna spins around to tell him not to get too close, but to her surprise, it wasn’t Wrex; but instead the Krogan from the vid, who Dr.Tunile injected first with the ‘cure’, Dr.Okeer’s experiment.

Quickly, the Krogan threw himself at Dr.Tunile. The hulking mass of Dr.Tunile rolls onto the ground for a moment.

“Luna! What’s going on!?” Garrus shouts to her.

“I don’t know, but shoot!” She shouts back.

They begin to use their snipers to shoot at the raging Dr.Tunile while the Krogan uses his fist, body, and shotgun. When Dr.Tunile goes to punch the Krogan, but he uses fortification, which lessens the blow.

A loud explosion was heard as Luna saw him use Carnage, causing Dr.Tunile to stagger backward. With as much power as possible, he head-butts her in the head.

That seems to have caused the opposite effect, as Dr.Tunile roars in anger, and head-butts him back, before picking him up and throwing him away.

Luna gasps and rushes over to the Krogan, wondering if he was dead. Instead, he groans in annoyance, trying to stand back up.

“You need to rest,” She said, giving him some medi-gel

“I’ll rest when I’m dead,” He grunts, getting to his legs, before falling back to the ground.

A loud roar was heard, and Luna turns to see Garrus fighting Dr.Tunile. He goes invisible and jumping away when she smashes the ground.

“Look, uh…”

“Grunt,” He growls.

She narrows her eyes at the name, “Look, Grunt, you need to rest. Let us handle this.” She orders.

He growls and stands up, “A Human and Turian, couldn’t do shit even if they tried,” He glares at her, his face close to hers.

Looking pissed at his assumption, she head-butts him using a bit of biotics to really make it hurt. He drops to the ground yowling in pain as she stood above him, blood falling from her head.

“Don’t you fucking dare act like your tough shit just because you were created and not born Krogan!” She grabs his collar, “Now you listen to me, you piece of fuck, when I say you fucking stay down and let us handle it, you fucking stay down and let us handle it.” She growls, her eyes black as the abyss.

He looks at her in fear, “Fine, but if you die, don’t bitch to me,” He said.

Dropping him on the ground, she turns around, “Don’t worry, I’m too stubborn to die,” She said, as Garrus uses another proximity bomb in the face of Dr.Tunile.

Not taking any chances, she took out Vixen and aims, emptying her clip into the brute. After her last shot Dr.Tunile stops and drops to her knee, Luna stood there breathing heavily. Garrus stands still holding his sides, breathing hard as well.

Looking at him, she sighs, until she heard a roaring sound. Quickly reloading her clip, she looks up to see Dr.Tunile charging quickly at her. Garrus screams for her to run, but Luna stubbornly stood her ground.

Aiming her sniper, she starts to shoot, but was too late, Dr.Tunile grabs Vixen and throws it away from her arms. Because of how light she was compared to Dr.Tunile, Luna went flying with her gun because of the force, but Dr.Tunile grabs her right arm and spins.

Luna screams in intense pain as she felt her arm pulling out of its socket as she was spun around and flung around the land into a nearby building. Garrus shouts in anger for her, and quickly uses a stim pack.

Feeling the rush course through his body, he runs after the brute emptying his assault rifle clip into her. When the clip was empty he threw he gun away and took out his pistol. He went through every gun he had and even threw all the grenades he had at the thing.

Dr.Tunile would always fall and get back up, even after another borage of bullets and explosives, she still wasn’t going down, but was becoming sluggish. Completely out, Garrus took out his Omni-blades and rushes at the staggering brute.

Jet packing in the air, he slams down into the brute, stabbing it in the process. She screams in anguish, but he didn’t let up. He kept stabbing down into her neck, wanting it to just fucking die already.

In a desperate attempt to save herself, Dr.Tunile charges headfirst into the building where Luna now lays.

Inside the building, Luna was screaming for dare life on her knees as her arm was out of its socket and broken. The sight of her right humerus sticking out of her arm was not something she wanted to see right now. It wasn’t until Dr.Tunile slams into the rock, with Garrus on top, that she stops screaming.

It was quiet for a moment, besides the fighting outside with her crew. When the rocks begin to move, Luna saw Garrus passed out on the ground and Dr.Tunile standing up.

Panting, Dr.Tunile looks at Garrus and roars. Her arm lifts into the air, intending to kill Garrus once and for all.

Before she could land that deadly blow, Luna scream.

A burst of energy hits like a wave into the area, effecting not only Garrus, her, and Dr.Tunile, but the others outside.

Brutes flew away by the energy. Jack uses a barrier to protect her and her father. Jacob helped Tali and Kasumi from flying off. Uvek goes undercover to save himself from flying off. Grunt was slammed into a rock beside Jack.

Jack begins to yell out for the others to get under her barrier before Luna screams again. Making her Barrier bigger, Jack braces for impact, as Luna screams again, causing buildings to down break and tumble around.

The third scream was the loudest, and most powerful as most of the brutes nearby begins to explode and buildings continue to be destroyed and crumble. Jack screams herself as she pushes hard to keep everyone safe from the destruction.

When it was all quiet, Jack finally stops the barrier and collapses onto the ground. Zaeed took her into his arms.

“It’s okay, you can rest now.” He whispers, as she slowly passes out in his arms.

Luna coughs as tears ran down her face. Her body was on fire, but she didn’t care. Watching Garrus almost die, was the worst experience she could muster. Never mind the first time it happened.

Sobbing, she stood there calling out for him but heard no answer. She turns to see Dr.Tunile’s body standing upright between two large rocks, her body squished between them, and her head was not there anymore, as it exploded from the screams.

“Garrus,” She whimpers, when she heard coughing she gasps, “Garrus!” Dropping to her knees, she begins to crawl, slowly, towards him using her knees and left arm.

“Fuck…is it…over?” He struggles out, opening his eyes slightly as he turns to see her crawling to him. For a moment, his mind grew scared when he saw her black eyes staring at him, but, he pushes the thought away.

Suddenly a gust of red cloud blows around. They both coughed for a moment, before taking deep breathes. Luna finally got to him and drops next to his body. Using as much strength as possible, he pushes his body to hold her in his arms.

Her face was covered by his chest as the red mist takes over the area. With the last of her energy, she surrounds them with her biotic bubble. The rest mist disappears where they are and Garrus looks around.

“Is…this the agent…?” Garrus asks.

“I…think...so.” Luna whimpers, laying her head on his chest, feeling exhausted.

They lie there for a moment as the mist surrounds the bubble they are in.

Breathing heavily, “So….about…that date?” He asks, pushing a piece of hair from her face.

Their eyes met, red with blue, and she giggles. Reaching over to him, she caresses his mandibles, noticing the irregular movement of it.

“Yes, let’s go on that date.” She smiles and kisses his mouth. Pulling back, she groans and takes his hand into hers, their hands entwined.

His mandibles twitch painfully, “Ow…” he kisses her hand, “Good, I can’t wait.” He gasps out, squeezing it.

In a matter of seconds, Luna burst out laughing.

“What?” He asks.

“I just…realized…after everything…we’ve been through, this will be our first date.”

They both laugh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, that's it for the Genophage plot. I know it sounds perfect, but it isn't trust me. I just didn't want to copy what the original game had, because it just sounds...stupid. 1k clutches of eggs, per female, and yes you can say 'most will die', but that's not how advanced society works. Most of those babies will live! I agree the Genophage was important, as the Krogan people were just...too much for the Galaxy to just cure them. 
> 
> The Krogans were no longer prey, so there wasn't a balance. They nuked themselves for crying out loud! Just because they couldn't find a challenge! Now, if they weren't 'advance' I wouldn't mind having the original cure idea, but they kinda are. They could leave their homeworld and just...no. With this version of the cure, they aren't overpopulation machines and can advance within reason.
> 
> Also, I know adding this backstory to Dr.Tunile was a bit...abrupt, lol, but doing this story, I just wrote what came to mind and edited afterward. Her backstory didn't come to mind until I wrote this chapter. Hope it isn't too jarring!
> 
> The next and last chapter will be posted this Friday. Hope you enjoyed the action bit. It was fun to write, lol.


	30. I Love You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's only three words, how hard can it be to say them?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is the end. Amazing how I got here, so many...hours, so many...rewrites and edits. This is my first ever long fic, I completed, and I am proud of it. There were times I was sad, times I was happy, times I wanted to just give up. But, I persevered, and now I am finished. 
> 
> I hope you all enjoy this fic as much as I did. I do believe I will be making more fanfiction with Garrus/FemShep and would love for you all to read those as well. At the moment, I do have a one-shot that isn't porn without plot, more of a wholesome fic. The Female Shep is ambiguous, so you know, yeah. It's called "No Regrets", check it out, I am sure you will not be disappointed. 
> 
> Anyway, no more rambling, please enjoy the last chapter of my story. Wanted to go out with a bang, so, fair warning this chapter is HEAVY with sex.

She was staring at him while dancing to the music upstairs in the VIP section of Afterlife on Omega. A smile on her face, only for him, as she bit her lips seductively. Her body slowly moves to the beat, touching herself, rubbing her body, moving her hips from side to side. The lights change constantly to fit the hype of the song.

He was leaning on the bar, drinking his alcoholic drink as they stare at each other. Red eyes only on him, only for him. She licks her lips slowly towards him; and he shifts his body while coughing as his mandibles twitch in embarrassment. He saw her giggle, before turning around and shaking her ass for him.

It was jiggling each time she pops her back and he was enjoying the view. Turning around, he orders another drink, and as he waits, he looks over his shoulder to see some random male human dancing behind her.

He took a deep breath, not allowing his jealousy to take over.

“Here you go,” The bartender said, and he quickly downs the drink. Slamming it on the table, he makes his way over to the dancing couple.

Placing his hand on the man's shoulder, he pulls him off her. She spins around and looks at him in shock, as the man on the ground glares at him.

He looks at the man with an intense stare, and the man stood up glaring at the floor, avoiding him, as he walks away muttering.

“Well that was rude,” She said, and he rolls his eyes.

“Well, he had his hands on you, which was a mistake.”

She smirks, “Really? And who are you to determine who I can and can’t dance with? I don’t even know you.” She shouts over the music.

He pulls her into him, and leans down to her ears, “Just someone here to serve, and protect.” He growls, and she shivers. When he leans back, he looks into her red eyes and she smirks again, before pushing him away from her.

Turning around she walks deeper into the dance floor, and he follows. When she turns left, he turns left, when she moves right, he moves right. Like a hunter, he follows his prey.

Suddenly, someone pushes into him, and he misses where she turns. Looking at the culprit, he glares at the drunken Turian.

“Hey, hey! Have you seen an Asari around here?” He slurs, “I…I can’t….I need her. She’s…so beautiful.”

He glares at the Turian and pushes him aside as he tries to find the red eyes vixen. With a sigh, he leaves the area to find a better vantage point.

While looking around, an Asari walks over to him, a smile on her face.

“Hey, you’re the most interesting person here, did you know that?” She said a smile on her face. He turns to her for a moment, before looking away.

“Whatever you want, I don’t. Looking for someone right now.” He said, as his eyes narrow when he saw her blue/red short dress. His eyes went from her black boots to her tone brown legs, up to her ass and waist.

“Come on, why don’t I buy you a drink,” She said, trying to get his attention. His mandible twitches in annoyance and he looks over to her. Looking into the eyes of the woman, he felt a certain pull.

“I…what?” he stutters, wondering why he was there, and not with this beautiful Asari.

“Let me buy you a drink,” She whispers, and for some reason the music was silent and all he could hear is her voice.

“O-” he stops when his mind remembers red eyes, milk chocolate skin, and her smell. He inhales and his senses went into hyperdrive and he quickly snaps his head towards her. She had an annoyed look on her face while pushing the Human from earlier, away from her.

“Hello,” The Asari said, annoyed he was ignoring her.

Walking away from the suspicious Asari, he makes his way over to the handsy man, and his prey.

Red eyes follow him and she giggles, pointing towards him. The guy turns around to look at him and he puts his hands in the air. Not giving a shit, he punches the guy in the face and glares at him.

“Leave,” He growls, and the guy runs away, holding his cheek.

“My hero,” She said, and he turns to look at her.

He chuckles, “As I said, I’m just someone here to serve and protect,” he gets closer to her. His prey couldn’t run away this time, since she is trap between the corner and him.

“Dance with me,” She mouths to him while biting her lips, seductively. His hand went to her waist, and she starts to grind on him. He wasn’t much of a dancer, but he follows the movement of her hips.

She arches her back while popping her ass on his groin area, as he squeezes her waist. Reaching her arms up, she circles her neck and dances. When she leans her head back onto his chest, he saw her mark.

Leaning down, he took in her smell and licks her mark, causing her to moan.

“I see you’re taken,” He said in her ears, pushing into her grinding hips. They start to move faster to keep up with the rhythm of the music.

She laughs, “You can say that, and he isn’t much of the sharing type.” She said running her hands down her face to her neck, bringing attention to her sweaty form and the inner valley between her breast.

He pants with want as he grips her hips harder and pulls her closer to him. Their bodies were hot and horny for each other.

“Is that so? Are you a sharing type?” He growls in her ears, nipping at her neck as she pants working her body more into him.

“I hate sharing; I rather stay a one Turian woman.” She gasps and moans, as he pushes her into the wall, licking, and biting near her mark.

“You better,” he growls as his hands reach down, lifting her dress, and into her wet underwear; her hands flat against the wall.

She whimpers, “We…we’re in…p..public.” She moans as she felt him rub her clit.

The club was dark enough for no one to see what they were doing in the corner. Unless someone was searching for it, he knew they were okay.

“You think I care what people on Omega will see? Now open your legs, I’m going to finger fuck you and make you come on this dance floor for me.” He commanded.

She pants and arches her back, opening her legs wider to give him more access. Balling her hands into a fist, she bites her lips from squealing as his finger enters her wet pussy.

She closes her eyes tight, scared people will see what they are doing. Weirdly enough, it’s a turn on to be like this, they could be caught at any moment. His entire body covers hers, as she shakes in pleasure and his hand reaches up to squeeze her breast.

He was hard, and she could feel it on her ass. Luckily, he had clothes on or his cock would be in full view of everyone.

“You like when I finger you in public, don’t you?” He whispers in her ears and she whimpers, “Answer me when I ask you a question,” He growls.

“Y…yes,” She moans and gasps as he slaps her breast.

“Yes, what?” He growls, biting into her.

“Yes, Sir.” She gasps.

“Good girl,” He starts to finger her faster, “Do you like my reward?” Rubbing her clit with his thumb.

She shakes, “Y…yes Sir!” She screams, feeling herself getting closer to coming.

Going faster, he grips her hips and they grind into each other. She heard him curse under his breath as he leans his warm head against the crook of her neck.

Shifting his body, he starts to finger her harder, and her hand reaches down, grabbing hold of his, forcing him to press harder onto her clit.

With a moan, she comes into his hand. Her knees buckle as she tries to keep upright using the wall as support.

He was panting, and she could still feel his bulge. Turning around, she leans against the wall, shaking. Weakly, she reaches up and kisses his mouth. He pushes himself, hard against her, grinding into her feeling how close their private parts were with only their clothes blocking the way.

The kiss was full of hot, unadulterated, passion. She moans, feeling herself getting frisky until she nips her tongue against his teeth. Pulling away, she gasps, sucking her tongue and tasting the blood.

“Sorry,” He quickly said in fear.

She laughs as she covers her mouth, “It is okay! I’ll be fine. Isn’t the first time this happened.” She puts her hand away and kisses him again, but she could feel him hesitate.

Rolling her eyes, she pulls away. How can a Turian be so…dominating one moment, but so sweet and caring the next in a split second?

She smiles up at him, knowing that’s why she…loves him.

Grabbing his hand, she pulls him away from the dance floor into another corner of the dark club.

Sitting at a booth, she calls over a dancer and orders some drinks for them. Looking over at the Turian, she smiles at him again. His mandibles twitch and she could see the worry in his blue eyes.

“Stop! I’m okay!” She crosses her legs, “So, who are you anyway? Can’t let you finger me on the dance floor and not introduce yourself to me.”

He kept looking at her worried, “Are you sure about this? Maybe we should stop; I want to make sure you’re okay. Turian’s teeth are really sharp.”

She rolls her eyes, “Yes, come on! You said we could do this. I’m fine. I’ve dealt with a lot more pain than a nip from your teeth.”

He was still hesitant but seeing her pout at the prospect of him not wanting to do this anymore, convinced him to keep going.

With a cough and looking away from her for a moment, he gets back into character.

Leaning back against the chair, he lays his arms on the head of the couch and tilts his head.

“The name is Garrus Vakarian, and you are?” He smirks and he saw her shiver at his deepened voice.

“Lunaria Shepard,” She thanks the dancer with a smile and gave her a tip. Taking a sip of her drink, she looks at Garrus with an intense stare.

He takes a drink, “Lunaria Shepard? I’ve heard about you.”

“Oh? What have you heard about me, Vakarian?” She licks her lip, enjoying the taste of her drink.

He watches and swallows, “Heard you work for someone pretty secret, and that you stole something pretty important from the Alliance.”

She laughs, “Is that what you’ve heard? Well, damn, and here I thought I hid well.”

“Well, credit where credit is due, Shepard, you did hide well. I’m just a pretty good detective.”

“Oh, I know that Vakarian. You’ve worked for C-Sec for a while, was top of your class in the Turian military, and is a Spectre at the moment.” She stands up and walks over to his booth. Sliding in beside him, she smiles.

“Oh? I see you did your research into me.” He said, turning his head towards her.

She smiles, laying her hand between his legs, feeling his hard cock between his clothes.

“I also know you used to be Archangel here on Omega.” She whispers in his ear, rubbing his cock and causing him to take in a breath, twitching in her hand.

“Yeah,” He groans, “You can say I was Archangel. Was pretty damn good at it too.” He said, looking over towards a female Turian looking at them weird. When their eyes met, she looks away embarrassed.

“Is there anything else you’re good at, Vakarian,” She whispers, licking at the mark on his neck and slipping her hand into his pants.

He kept a straight face as she pumps his hard thick cock. He could smell her arousal and it was driving him crazy. Her tongue was working at his neck while she whispers sweet nothing into his neck.

He curses when she stops. Looking at her, he saw how sexually frustrated she was when she pulls away from him and shifts in her seat.

“Let’s change location. I have a hotel suite we could enjoy.” She licks the mark on his neck, “Me, and you, a nice large bed to roll around, and fuck on.” She grins, “It has a very large bathroom,” She gasps, “Or a large window you can fuck me on to show Omega who I belong to.” She bites hard into his hide, causing him to moan.

With a chuckle, he got an idea of what they could do. After all, he wants to ‘help’ her with her sexual frustration, at least that’s what he’s going with.

Leaning to her ears, he whispers, “Fuck going to the room, I want you to ride me, right now, right here.”

She looks at him, wide-eyed, “Right here?” She chuckles nervously, “What about the suite, Vakarian,” She grins at him and gets up.

Grabbing her waist, he pulls her into his lap, “When I say right now, I mean right now, Luna.” He demanded.

Quickly, he pulls her underwear off. She gasps and struggles on his lap, be he was stronger and faster than she was.

“G-Garrus!” She gasps, and he chuckles.

“Don’t think you need these,” He teases, holding her lacy blue thong in his hand. She tries to grab it, but he tucks it behind him. “Now, sit on me,” He demanded, and she bit her lips, looking around.

No one was paying them attention. Looking back at Garrus, she slowly sits on him, as he made sure to hold his cock still, sliding it into her tight fold.

Luna groans, gripping the table, closing her eyes, and shaking. She didn’t know how much she missed his cock, until now.

Thrusting into her, he grabs her waist to keep her steady. She kept looking around in fear of being caught, but eventually stop caring and bounces on his cock.

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you? Never thought you would love public fucking so much, Luna.” He chuckles, leaning forward and pulling her deeper into him.

“S-Shut up,” She gasps when he starts to rub her clit. Her lips bled as she bit into it too hard. Her calm expression was breaking with each thrust. She could feel herself about to let loose any moment now.

He slaps her thighs, causing her to yip, "Don't tell me to shut up," He growls, roughly thrusting into her.

"S-sorry, Sir,"

"Good girl," He licks her neck, “We can get caught at any moment, Luna, aren't you worried?” He growls in her ears, "So many people are in the club, Luna, someone might see us," He teases.

She pants as couldn’t take it anymore, and starts aggressively bouncing on him cock. A grin appears on her face. Let them see, let them all see how much he’s fucking her tight pussy with his long thick cock.

“Fuck,” He growls, and pulls them back. She spreads her legs open as he quickly rubs her swollen clit.

“Garrus…oh god,” Her hand lays on top of his, forcing him to rub it harder. The closer she gets, the harder she leans into him.

Garrus looks up to see the same Asari from earlier, the one who was trying to buy him a drink. She watches them, not in embarrassment, but of interest. Slowly, she tilts her head as she watches their form and the way he was handling Luna.

Looking away, he licks and nips at her neck, as she starts to slow down. Luna felt like she was flying in the clouds at the pleasure right now. They could be caught right now, told to get the fuck out for their little dirty session.

“I’m such a bad girl,” She pants and moans, leaning forward, grabbing the table for support.

“Yes you are, my bad girl” He growls, still rubbing her clit with one hand while entwining with her hand with the other.

“I’m your bad girl, Sir.” She looks up and her eyes went wide at the sight of the Asari smiling at them, her hand below the table, watching.

“Yes, my sexy bad girl.” He thrusts faster feeling her tighten around him, “You going to come for me?”

She shook her head and look away embarrassed, “G-Garrus, someone’s watching. We…we should stop.” She gasps.

“I asked; are you going to come for me?” He repeats, ignoring her.

She looks back at him, “But…”

“I don’t give a fuck about that Asari.” He growls, slapping her thigh, and she squeals. “Now, are you going to come for me, Luna?” He pushes hard into her, and she moans loudly, shaking.

She pants as Garrus pumps into her harder. Rolling her hips for a moment, she shifts her body a little to give herself a better balance. Whimpering, her bounces quickens; she was so close.

Wrapping her arms around his neck, she bites her hand as she screams while laying her head onto the table. Garrus groans as he felt him come with her, feeling her squeeze his cock. His eyes tightly shut, filling her up with his come.

When he opened his eyes, he saw the Asari look at them, grinning at him before getting up and walking away.

Not really giving a fuck, he starts to rub her back lovingly. Luna silently whimpers, rolling her hips as she rides her climax. Sitting up, she wipes away the drool that was falling from her mouth.

Laying back on his chest, she watches the people of the club dance, talk, and drink. She chuckles feeling high after their public fucking.

“That was so….hot and so…bad.” She laughs, and he holds her waist, placing his head on her shoulder.

“Oh yeah. Not to self, Luna loves public fucking.” He bites her neck, making her moan, “I can still feel you coming.”

She giggles and lays her arms on his, “Shut up, I’m not the only one.” She whispers.

They sat there for a while, gathering themselves. After a moment, Luna moves a little after feeling Garrus’ cock slips out of her and goes back inside of its slit.

“Hey, Shep!” Kasumi calls out, Jacob behind her talking to Jack.

Quickly sitting up, she fixes her hair a bit and smiles at them.

“Hey!” She said quickly, hoping they didn’t catch on. Jack tilts her head, and in a second, she knew what happened.

“Shit, you two fucked each other?” Jack shouts, laughing with a grin on her face.

“What? N-No!” Luna stutters as they took a seat.

Jacob looks at her and Garrus, “You sure? Because you are glowing right now, Shepard.” He said.

Garrus starts laughing, “She was dancing like a manic on the dance floor. Had too much fun. That’s why she’s glowing.”

Jacob laughs, “That’s a fucking lie.”

“No wait, Garrus has a point, Shep dances like a damn manic.” Kasumi points out.

Luna rolls her eyes, “Hey, I dance quite good, thank you very much,”

“So, you guys did fucked each other.” Jack grins.

Luna grew quiet, trying to figure her way out this hole.

“I gave us an out, but you couldn’t let go of your pride, huh?” Garrus shook his head, and Luna turns to look at him.

“It was your idea! I wanted to go to the hotel! We have a damn suite,” She shouts, and Jack burst out laughing, holding her sides.

“Yeah, but you were having so much fun here, I would have been a bad boyfriend if I didn’t,” He rubs her thighs, “Indulge you.” He whispers, and she shivers.

“How the hell you guys didn’t get caught? This area isn’t that private.” Jacob questions.

Kasumi chuckles, “Come on, we’ve got away with worse, J.”

Jack stops laughing, “Are you all just freaks, who love fucking in public? Damn!” She leans back and crosses her arms.

“No! This is a first for me. I didn’t even know it was going to get to this point.” Luna shook her head, “Talk about changing the narrative mid, role play.” She whispers, under her breath.

“Is it still in there? Does it even work like that? I heard Turians don’t leave their dicks out.” Jack asks.

Luna glares at her, “Where his dick is, is none of your business!”

“So, it’s still in there.”

“No!”

Garrus chuckles, “You are right, we don’t leave our dicks out,” he looks at Jacob, “Which kind of makes me wonder, doesn’t hurt when someone hits it? It’s all out in the open for anything to happen.”

“Yes, it hurts like hell, but evolution didn’t give us a protective cone to keep it safe, unlike Turians.” He said.

"Not a protective cone, more of a slit," Garrus corrected.

“Alright so, Shepard and Garrus fuck in public for the first time,” She looks at Kasumi and Jacob, “But, why does it sound like you guys do it all the damn time?” Jack asks.

“Tactical cloak does wonders,” Kasumi giggles.

“Tactical cloak, huh?” Garrus ponders, “We should try that next time we’re in public.”

“No!” Luna squeals as her face heats up, “Can we stop talking about having sex in public.”

“I wouldn’t have to talk about it if you guys didn’t do it.” Jack laughs as Luna grunts.

“Baby, I just want to please you. Nothing wrong with adding this kink to the other ones,” Garrus chuckles, and Luna punches him.

“Garrus, I swear to God…”

“You know, I remember two months ago, you were telling my friends about our sex life,” He teases.

“You’ve punished me about that already!” She whines and pouts.

Jack laughs, “Holy shit…how freaky are you guys? I need to know…for research!”

“I think as time continues, the kinks are getting more…exciting,” Garrus said, looking at Luna with hungry eyes.

“Yeah, like having sex in public!” Kasumi giggles, “You guys should try this game where one of you have a vibrator on, and the other gets to be in control”

“That sounds pretty normal,” Luna said, tilting her head.

Kasumi chuckles, “Oh no, no, you have to do it in public. I do it to Jacob all the time!”

"Wait, you do it to Jacob? Not him do it to you?" Jack asks, but no one caught it.

“I’ll keep that in mind, Kasumi, thanks,” Garrus said with a devious look on.

“Kasumi!”

“It’s not so bad, Shepard, just need to mind the noise,” Jacob said with a smile, Jack's eyes went wide looking at him and she grins, picturing the scenario.

“What?! Shouldn’t you be upset she voice that to everyone?”

He laughs, “Shepard, come on, it’s Kasumi,” he shrugs.

She frowns, “You were supposed to be on my team.”

“Hey, I’m on your team,” Garrus chuckles and places his arms around her shoulder, “And your team is clearly, fucking in public.” He said, waving his hand in the air.

Jack burst out laughing, "Team fucking in public, let's go!"Luna sinks into the seat, trying to hide.

***

They were quiet as they walked around Omega, enjoying the rest of their date. Until Garrus saw two idiots fighting each other. Both took out their guns, ready to kill one another. Touching his weapon, Garrus was about to intervene, when Luna grabs his hand.

“Don’t,” She said, and he looks at her annoyed, but notices the two walk away telling each other off.

He calms down, “I hate Omega.” He whispers.

She narrows her eyes, “I hate the Citadel,”

He looks at her and chuckles, “Come on, really? I mean the Citadel has its fault, but Omega is just a pile of crap.”

She glares at him, “Omega is my home. I mean, the Normandy is my home, but Omega has been my living space for years. Don’t call it a pile of crap, because it’s not clean and proper as the Citadel,” She mocks.

He shook his head, “Well, at least the Citadel is not crime heavy as Omega.” He glares at her.

“Oh please, the Citadel is full of underground crime, and ‘legal’ crime. At least Omega is upfront with its problems, unlike the fakeness that is the fucking Citadel.”

They glare at each other in anger, before Luna looks away, and sighs. With a drop of her shoulder, she walks over to a railing and looks around at the wards of Omega.

Garrus’ facial expression changes from anger to sadness, as guilt starts to overtake him.

Walking over towards her, he wraps his arms around her waist and leans his chin on top of her head.

“I’m sorry; I shouldn’t have disrespected your home.”

She sighs, “I know Omega can be…hard. I guess I’m defending it because it’s been my home for years. It was the place that took me and my mother in after what we’ve been through.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” she turns and looks up at him, “Do you think this will be a problem in the future?”

“What? The Citadel and Omega?”

“No, us…being so different.”

He chuckles, “We’re not that different, Luna.” He bends to kiss her, but she dodges him.

“Garrus,”

He stands up straight, “Alright, what do you mean?”

“I’m from Omega, you, the Citadel. I work for the Shadow Broker, you, the Council. I’m a criminal, you, a Spectre.” She looks down, “I’m a Human, you, a Turian.”

He stood there as his mandibles twitches. She has a point; they live different lives. One day, he’s going to be chasing her again.

“I don’t really believe in ‘love conquers all’, it’s just a stupid saying that, to me, makes no damn sense.” She balls her hands into a fist, “I mean I…care about you, Garrus, but…fuck, our lives are too different!” She starts shaking her head, “I mean what if-”

“Luna!” He shouts, wanting her to stop.

She stops and gave him a sad look. He hugs her close to him, and she hugs him back. There was a moment of silence between them.

Pulling away, Garrus holds her chin up, “Luna, listen to me okay,” she nods, “Let’s just be together. Whatever happens in the future happens. I really don’t care about our differences, I love you, and if our differences tear us apart,” He takes in a breath, “We’ll just see what happens when we get there, okay?”

“Okay,” She whispers, “I…” Say it Luna, say you love him, “I…I’m happy we didn’t push each other away.” She said, wanting to punch herself for being a coward. For days she has wanted to say these three simple ass words, I love you.

Garrus stares at her for a moment, trying to hide his disappointment; he knew what she was going to say. Not wanting it to put a damper on this day and their date, he kisses her.

Continuing their walk, Luna realizes they were walking towards Garrus’ old base. Turning her head to the side, she looks at him with confusion. He did not say anything or look at her, but she could see that his expression was not a look of anger.

“Garrus?”

“I want to see how it looks now, heard in passing that it was occupied.”

She nods, and they walk in silence. She begins to wonder how he feels about going back there. Was he still angry? Would this be traumatic for him? She was not there to understand his feelings, but it was his team, his friends.

The ‘I hate Omega’ has a bigger meaning now. At least on the Citadel, nothing like that happened to her. Still, Omega was her home, and even though it was a shitty place, it has its okay moments.

“Hey, I know you,” They turn to see a young Batarian looking at Garrus.

Squinting his eyes a little, Garrus figured out who it was, “Pgnie? Ren’s daughter?”

She nods, “Yeah, it’s me! Good to see you again, Archangel.”

Garrus looks around suspiciously, “You here alone?”

“Yeah, I come by sometimes to see how everyone is doing here.”

“How everyone is doing here?”

“You know refugees of the gang wars, the poor and hopeless, people that need a place to stay.” She said, pointing towards the large home base from his team.

Inside they saw the multiple of people walking around, talking, eating…laughing, even children running around, happy. Garrus felt a sense of happiness learning his home base did not fall into the hands of pieces of shits. Instead, it’s a shelter, a sanctuary.

Luna smiles, “I didn’t know they did this. How is this able to happen? Aria changed?”

Pgnie snorts, “As if. No, there is a group, a successor of your old crew, Garrus. They call themselves, Red Talon.” She smiles, “They plan on liberating Omega, wanting it to be safer.”

He ponders, “It doesn’t happen to have a Turian leader named, Nyreen, does it?”

She gasps, “You know the leader? But, how, she just came to be!”

Garrus sighs, “I met her years ago when I came looking for someone,” he looks at Luna, “Said something about needing help to fix Omega.”

Pgnie nods, “We do! Nyreen has done so much for us; this place was vacant for years until recently.” She looks back at the shelter, “Something is going on with her and Aria, I don’t know what, but it’s something.”

“Red Talon was a gang, before,” Luna gasps, “Ugh, was having trouble trying to figure out how the hell I knew that name.”

“Yes, they were, but Nyreen changed that. She’s now the leader, and with that, she helps others, and helps others help themselves.”

Garrus crosses his arms, “I guess things have changed in Omega,” he walks over to the bridge and leans over it, “I don’t think I could stay here and help out, Pgnie, I have a job to protect the galaxy, not just Omega.”

“I heard Garrus Vakarian became a Spectre, glad the rumors are true.”

“How come you didn’t tell anyone who I was?”

“No point,” She shrugs, “Plus, dad wouldn’t be happy if I did,” She whispers, walking over to him and leaning against the bridge as well.

“Ren was…a good guy, everything he did was for you, you know?”

She chuckles, “I know, when mom died he was so…protective of me.”

“I’m sorry that you lost them both,” He said.

“It’s okay. I mean, it was hard at first, but I have been healing. He taught me so much before his passing.” She grins, “Now, I use his teaching to protect people of Omega.” Taking out a datapad, she hands it to Garrus.

“What’s this?”

“This is something from Nalah, Jin’in’s wife. She told me to have it since she won’t be here to give it to you.” He takes it, and swallows, “I know you can’t protect Omega anymore, but we could still use your help. As a Spectre would be nice to have some resources to help and feed others who needs it.”

He nods, “I’ll help any way I can, Pgnie. Stay safe, okay?”

She giggles, “You know, I had this huge crush on you. You were a hero to others and me. I would get so jealous when you would have a ‘girlfriend’ around.”

Luna’s eyebrows raised

“Is that so?” Garrus laughs.

“Yeah,” She begins to walk away, “But, I don’t like you anymore. You’re my father’s friend and boss, so that’s gross!” She shouts to him, before running away.

Luna laughs, “That’s cute; she had a crush on you.” Wrapping her arms around his waist, she lays her head on his back.

Garrus did not say anything back; instead, he read the letter from Nalah.

_From: Nalah Butler_

_Dear Garrus,_

_You have been an inspiration for my husband, and although he is gone, his memories are still with me. I saw the message you sent me, it was nice, and I do not blame you at all for his death. What happened was heartbreaking, and our daughters will hurt not being able to see him, that goes for me as well, but it is okay, we are okay._

_Please do not blame yourself for their deaths, for his death. If Jin were alive, he would do it all over again. What you all did for Omega was beautiful, and in time, I hope it does change for the better._

_Jin did not want us to stay here, and I will honor his wishes. With the credits he saved up, I will be moving to Thessia._

_I hope this reaches you one day, Garrus, and that you live a wonderful life._

_Ps. I heard you became a Spectre, I, and I am sure everyone else, is happy for you._

_-Nalah Butler._

Putting the datapad away, Garrus turns around and looks down at Luna. She did not say anything, instead, lays her head on his chest.

“This date is nice, don’t you think?” She murmurs on his chest.

He chuckles and holds her tight, “Yeah, it’s nice.”

***

Heading towards Mordin’s old clinic, they saw Navi talking to a group of people. Luna smiles noting each of them as her engineering friend group.

“You seriously need to tell us what happens after!” A Turian female said to Navi, who rolls her eyes,

“Don’t worry Mika; I’ll do it,” Seeing Luna she beams, “Lulu! Hey! I thought you guys are on a date.”

“We are, just wanted to check on you and mom. Want to see if everything is okay.” Luna smiles, “Hey to you all by the way,”

“Hey Luna,” Mika said.

“Hello, Shepard,” Amilia said.

“Hi, Luna,” Ash said, giving her a sad smile at hearing she is on a date, and clearly with Garrus.

“Would you relax, Ash, maybe focus on being with someone your own age,” Navi grumbles to him.

“Aren’t you dating someone much older than you?”

She rolls her eyes, “He’s twenty-two, hardly that much older, and we’re not dating, so hush.”

“What are you guys talking about anyway? Also, where is everyone else?” Luna asks.

“Everyone else is working, or left the station.” The Asari, Amilia, said, “Right now, we were talking about EDI, and to see if Navi can place her in this body we created.”

“Body?” Garrus asks.

Ash grins, “Oh yeah! I wanted to make this sexy robot, large breast, and-”

“And it was stupid, highly unnecessary,” Mika glares at him, “Instead, one of our friends, his name is Jeremy, shown us this really old movie from Earth. Like century year old.”

Amilia claps, “It was called Wall-E. Such a strange name! Nevertheless, I enjoyed the story it was telling. Never knew how beautiful robot love can be.” She sighs, “I want to fall in love with an AI.”

Navi giggles, “That’s silly Ami.”

“Silly, until I find a way!” She gasps.

“Either way! One of the robots during the film was called ‘Eve’, its function was to be a biological terrestrial probe for the really fat humans.” Mika said.

“Really fat Humans, huh?” Luna laughs.

“Oh, spirits, they were large! Could not even get out of their seats. Are Humans like that now?” She asks.

Luna shrugs, “Some can be, but back to the robot.”

“Right!” She moves to the side showing the robot unmoving body, “This is ‘EVE’ from Wall-E, but, it will be a host for EDI.”

Luna stares at the body and is quite surprised at how small and cute it was; she squeals.

“It’s so cute! What can it do? I’m assuming it won’t have the same function as this ‘EVE’ from Wall-E.”

“Oh no! It would have defensives, like things to protect you on missions, but also a scanner. It can be a scout for you!” Navi comments, jumping a little and clapping.

“The Normandy has a scanner already,”

“Yes, but this will be, you know, on the ground with you! It can also move extremely fast.” Mika quickly states.

“Have you tested this?”

They all went quiet, looking among themselves.

“Um…no, but that’s why we want Navi to try it out.”

“Navi is going to college on the Citadel after she graduates. She also isn’t ‘on the ground’, I am.”

“I mean, yes, but…uh.”

Luna chuckles, “I’ll test it out. I see no harm in having EDI as a physical body, helping me on the ground.” She crosses her arms, “So, what are the plans for all of you?”

“I’m going to Palaven to live with some relatives. Ash here is going to live on Earth for school, and Ami is staying here.”

“Oh? Why’s that?”

“I just want to live here. Omega is home, so I’ll be staying here.” She smiles brightly.

“Well in that case,” She looks at Navi, “I’ll let you say your goodbyes. Just remember we leave tomorrow, okay?”

“Yup, I know. Bye Lulu, Garrus.”

After their goodbyes, they made their way into the Clinic and Luna was glad to see everyone was working out here.

Her mother was instructing a few people, before turning around and smiling at them.

“Date is over already?”

“No, just came by to see how things are going.”

“Things are fine, although, I would like to have a look at your arm, Luna.”

She shook her head, “I’m fine mom, no need to worry.”

“I swear you and your father just hate doctors.” She grumbles, bringing her hand out. Luna sighs and shows her arm. Laena gave a bit of a study and smiles.

“See, nothing is wrong.”

“I just want to make sure. Soon I will be living mainly on the Citadel with Navi, so I won’t be there for you.” She holds Luna for a moment, “I guess I’m just worried.”

“You do know I’m 30, right?”

“Doesn’t mean shit! You are my daughter!”

“Mom, language.” They both laugh

Garrus tilts his head, “You’re going to live on the Citadel? I didn’t know that.”

She smiles warmly at him, “Yes, my current work requires me to do so. Plus, with the money I earned, I was able to buy a three-bedroom apartment for my family.” She took a seat; both Garrus and Luna join her.

“Three-bedroom, huh? Looks like I don’t need to give you the key to my apartment.” Garrus teases.

“Oh I am definitely getting the key,” Luna pouts.

Laena smiles at them, “It was nice working with you, Garrus. You have taught me so much, and I am glad to have you in this family.”

“Thank you, Dr.Shepard.”

“You make it sound as if we’re married, mom.”

“Through Turian custom, you are, remember?”

Luna bit her lips, “Oh, right.”

Garrus chuckles, “We don’t have to look at it that way. I understand Human customs are different.”

“Yeah, a lot of planning, stress, and crying involved.” Luna laughs.

“By the way, what work are you doing? Would you like some help? Being a Spectre, I might have some pull,” Garrus said, looking at Laena.

“No, that’s alright. If you must know, the work involves helping a patient prolong her life,” She touches his hand, “Galina Vakarian’s life.”

Garrus stares at her in shock, not knowing what to say.

“My team and I want to see if we could help. We do not know if we could cure her, but if we can help her live longer. That is the least we could do. I talked with her, and she is getting depressed staying in Sur’Kesh.”

He looks down and Luna rubs his back for comfort.

“I can’t have her go back to Palaven; I won’t have access to her. Palaven is not made for other species besides the ones living there because of the radiation.” She leans back, “But, on the Citadel, we can help her, while she has access to something important for a patient's health, family.”

“Family,” He whispers.

“I remember you telling me how much you want to spend time with her. Having her live on Sur’Kesh, things can get awkward. I heard it was hard for your father and sister to visit her as well. So, I asked for her to be transferred to the Citadel. With Mordin by my side and our own team, we could work on her problem, while giving her better access to family.” She smiles.

He nods, “Thank you, so much. I don’t know what to say.”

“Please, you don’t have to say anything. It was Mordin’s idea. I wanted to retire, but he brought this up as a payment for your services.”

“Does my father know?”

“I contacted him the other day, so yes, he knows. Your sister is already on the Citadel, and she knows as well. Sadly, because it is a family member, she will not be on my team, but she is allowed to visit and spend time with her.”

“I’m guessing I shouldn’t expect a miracle like the Krogans?”

“No, never expect a miracle, Garrus, but have hope for a better tomorrow. Enjoy the present and be happy for her life, now.”

Luna bit her fingers, “What about Thane?”

“Thane is being looked at by someone else. Because he is a friend…I cannot join that team. Garrus’ mother isn’t someone I am close to, so I was able to get away with creating this team to work with her.”

They continue to talk about Garrus’ mother, wanting to understand how things will work, and how long does she have. The numbers were not in Garrus’ favor, but it is better than nothing.

“How are the Krogans? Any fighting?” Luna asks.

“I talked to Wrex today, and we talked about the new laws the Krogans will have to go through. The galaxy sympathizes with them, but are still scared. Increased military presents on Tuchanka, until further notice, but the Krogan people will follow the laws, thankfully.”

“And Grunt?”

“Grunt is working along with aide Wrex. I think he took a liking to him!” Laena laughs, “Things are going to be hard for Grunt, but I can see he has the grit to push through. He has promise.”

“Good to hear, mom.”

“Heard they are working on rebuilding,” Garrus said.

“Yes, Baraka has told me the ideas she wanted to create for her people. There is a problem of Kalros, but I think it will be fine,” She said biting her lips, “I…hope things will be fine.”

“Who’s Kalros?” Luna asks.

“A legendary Thresher Maw known as “The mother from which all other thresher maws spawn,” At least that’s what Baraka told me.”

Both Garrus and Luna stare at Laena, with a look of fear.

***

They finally made it to their hotel suite. Garrus was sitting on the couch, watching a vid as he waits for Luna to come out of the bathroom. It has been thirty minutes, and every time he asks her if she needs help, she always replied no.

With a sigh, he looks at the bathroom to ask if she was all right, when she came out of the bathroom, a smile on her face.

She was wearing the harness he bought her for long ago. His eyes rolled over her body, as he feels himself getting hard just by watching her walk over to him.

“Happy birthday!” She said, twirling for him to get a great view of her amazing ass. When she stops twirling, she looks at him and bashfully tries to hide her naked body.

He chuckles, “Are you trying to hide from me, Luna?” He stands up and she bit her lips at his shirtless body.

“I’m trying not to, but it feels weird. I’m wearing clothes, but I’m not wearing clothes.” She opens her legs slightly, “Like damn, my vagina is just…out there, and my nipples.” She rubs her harden nipples.

He lays his hand on her breast and starts to rub. She moans as his hands, feeling herself getting wet. Moving his hand away from her breast, he grabs her chin and looks into her eyes.

“You look beautiful,”

She giggles, “You’re just saying that because I’m your girlfriend.”

“I’m saying that because you are.”

Her heart pounds in her chest at his view. Just him looking at her makes her so…nervous. Especially when he is giving her, that, look. That look that made her knees weak as he holds her.

They just stare into each other’s eyes not saying a word, as time seem to slow. She wants to kiss him, but she did not want to look away from him. There was something in her that scream to tell him what he wants to hear, tell him she loves him.

Taking in a breath, she opens her mouth to say it, but he cuts her off and kisses her. It was slow, not like what happened in the club. Just…slow and nice. When she opens her mouth, his tongue slides inside and begins to dance with hers.

Her arms reach around his neck and begin lightly rubbing the back of his fringe. He moans softly in her hands, and she begins to suck his tongue lightly.

It was weird, kissing a Turian, but she has gotten used to it. Sure, there were times like in the club, she would end up getting hurt, but she did not care. Just feeling his body on hers as their tongues play around with each other was all she needs to feel hot and bothered.

God, she loves his body, so big and strong. He could lift her and do whatever the fuck he wants with, or to, her. She moans at the thought of him fucking her, pressing his heavy body on top of hers. She did not want to be crushed or anything, just feel his weight on her.

His arms reached behind her to squeeze her ass, right before slapping it a few times, causing her to moan. They stop kissing, and instead just grind on each other. Laying her head on his chest, she could hear his heart beating faster as they continued to grind on each other.

One of her legs hooks onto his waist, feeling his hard bulge hitting her. If only he didn’t have pants on.

Pulling away, Garrus walks over to the couch to sit down.

“Come here,” He said, and Luna smiles. Walking over to him, she straddles his lap, and his hands grab her ass and squeeze.

Laying on his chest, she once again listens to his heartbeats; it was still beating fast. When he starts to grind into her, she joins him. Pulling herself up, she kisses and sucks his neck, a giggle escapes her lips when he groans, slapping her ass.

“Garrus,” She whimpers, biting him again.

“Yes, baby?” He groans again when she bit him a second time.

Hearing him, call her baby made her feel so happy. Was it weird? Maybe? But, many people use that term, no?

She looks at him and smiles, “I…” He gave her a look of happiness, knowing what she was going to say, “I…can’t wait for what you have in store for me.” She grins, but inside was so beating herself up. Just say ‘I love you,’ already! Why does it have to be so hard?

Garrus hid his sadness from her. He was so sure she was going to say it. He wants to give her as much time as possible, but…it would be nice to hear it.

Kisses his lips softly, she stands up and smiles at him.

“So, what would you like me to do, Sir?” She asks seductively.

Standing up, Garrus walks away from her for a moment, and grabs a blindfold and her ball gag. He saw her looking a bit guilty, so he slaps her ass, getting a gasp as she turns around to look at him.

Covering her eyes with the blindfold, and placing the gag in her mouth. He places her arms behind her back and ties them. She starts to muffle and squirm under his touch, as he lightly uses his talons to run over her body.

He felt the goosebumps on her arm and chuckle. Human bodies react so oddly, and he enjoys it. Kisses her neck and licking her mark, he leads her over to the large window, impressed by the nice view of Omega.

He holds her leg up, giving whoever wanted to see a view of her pussy. Of course, they were in a high rise, so it was impossible, but she doesn’t have to know what.

“How does it feel to know everyone can see you tight pussy, Luna.” He growls in her ears. She starts to gasps and shakes, feeling herself getting wet at the thought.

“Were right in front of a window, everything is displayed for anyone to see.” His other hand reaches down to touch her, and when he realizes she was wet, he chuckles.

“You like this don’t you? Knowing people are looking at you.” He starts to rub at her clit, and she moans.

“No…” He could hear from her mumbling, but that was a lie. It turned her on at the thought of people watching her. Her body jerks as he presses down harder on her swollen clit.

“You’re so wet, baby. You can’t lie to me. You love this.” He chuckles and licks at her neck. Reaching further down, he starts to finger her. The squeezing of her tight walls turns him on, spirits; he was hard, wanting to fuck her.

Dropping her leg, he uses the window to steady himself as he pushes his body into her while fingering her faster. She moans loudly through her ball gag, squeezing her hands on the rope that is keeping her bound.

“You’re such a dirty slut, Luna, fucking my finger while people could be watching.” He slaps her ass hard, “Is that what you like, people watching you fuck my finger?”

She moans, squeezing her eyes tight. This thought, the feeling, why does it turn her on so much. Watch them; she just wants the eyes to watch them. The thought of all eyes on them right now, watching as he fucks her tight hole with his finger, made her moan in excitement.

Suddenly, there was a shocking sensation hitting her body, it was painful enough to be pleasurable. She starts to scream at the shocking, as her body jerks with each shock. The harness!

“Spirits, you’re squeezing so hard.” He bites her neck, lightly, “You love the punishment, don’t you?”

She screams again as another shock hits her body. Her body shakes and she pulls at her restraints some more, begging him for more. Getting shocked again, she groans in excitement, drools running down her ball gag, as she pants.

Her body moves faster and faster. She heard him curse and wonders if she was getting too out of control.

When he pulls his finger out of her, she groans in disappointment. Until she felt his cock replaces it. Pinned roughly against the window, she felt his hard cock buried deep inside, stretching her. In her mind, more eyes watch them, and she couldn’t help but beg him to fuck her harder, and to shock her more. Hoping he doesn’t stop.

His hands laid flat against the window, as he roughly takes her.

“You’re my dirty little slut,” He pants, slapping her fat ass, making her moan loud into the room. He slaps again, and again, and again. Hearing him call her his dirty little slut, made her squeal in delight.

“Like that, don’t you?” She nods, and whimpers, her ass hot and sore from his abuse. He starts to slap again, and she grips the rope tight while biting into her ball gag hard as she salivates from the pleasure and pain coursing through her body.

“Fuck,” he swears, using his talons to dig into her skin, causing her to bleed. They both were close, and as her power pumps into his body. He groans loudly and comes into her awaiting pussy. While coming, he grabs her throat and squeezes.

She gasps feeling her body getting closer and closer to the edge. Knowing he was filling her up with his come…she couldn’t take it and finally comes.

He hovers her body, panting. She was shaking while on her tippy toes, breathing heavily. After a minute, she drops weak from standing up, but he catches her.

“Got you,” He whispers, giving her light kisses over her body. She whimpers at his tenderness, feeling her heart about to explode from happiness.

_‘God, I love you so much, Garrus.’_

Picking her up, he brings her to the bed, laying her on her back; she was still a bit shaky from their moment together.

Climbing on top of her, he grabs her right leg and brings it to the upper right side of the bedpost, tying it there, and repeats the process with her left leg.

He chuckles, “You have a beautiful pussy, Luna.” He whispers, rubbing her clit. She starts to moan and twitch in his hands. Grabbing her vibrating dildo, he pushes it into her and lays the small part onto her clit.

Once he turns it on, she was moaning his name and shaking. As he fucks her with the dildo, he felt himself getting hard again. Leaving it inside, he turns his attention to her nipples and begins to lick and play with them.

Her hips were moving on their own, thrusting them forward, as if he was on top of her. Everywhere was an intense pleasure from her neck to her toes. Everything Garrus was doing was about to have her explode, again. If the first time wasn’t enough!

Once he stops licking and playing with her nipples, he went back to fucking her with the dildo. She couldn’t see shit. It was impossible with the blindfold, but she could feel everything! His pumping was rough and deep, just, as she loves it.

The faster he went, the faster she came closer to coming. Her entire body wiggles, fighting the restraints. She felt herself going wild, screaming, thrashing, and whimpering.

Garrus was breathing heavily as he watches her body. Just watching her was getting him going. He starts to use the dildo faster, turning it to the highest setting, and in a matter of seconds, she was coming. Her entire body was jerking each time he continues to thrust into her with the dildo. He gave a look of surprise when he saw her squirt, while she whimpers.

“Beautiful,” he whispers, pulling her dildo completely out.

Slowly he took away her retrains, her ball gag, and soon after, her blindfold. Staring into her blackened eyes, he watches a small smile appears on her face as she breathes heavily.

They start to kiss, slowly, and Luna’s hand reaches for Garrus’ cock. He was still hard after watching her squirt for him. He has only seen it in Fornax when he was researching sex with Humans. Although, it wasn’t rushing water-like.

“I love you, Luna.” He whispers, moving some hair out of her face.

She reaches up and touches his face, smiling, “Garrus,” She whispers, snuggling up close to him.

“I want to say thank you. Before we met, I was in a dark hole, and it was looking as if there was no way out.” He touches her head with his.

“I know what you mean,” She whispers.

“You mean everything to me, and I hope this doesn’t change in the future.” He said as their eyes met.

She smiles, “Garrus, I…” This was it! This was the moment! “I…think we should take care of your…hard cock,” What the fuck, Luna!

He blinks for a few seconds, before laughing to hide his anger.

“It’s just, I know when a guy is really hard, and they don’t get their release, there is a good chance that it could hurt, and I don’t want that to happen.” Fucking, shit Luna, you are a dumbass.

Without a word, he climbs on top of her. He was…disappointed, but he was not going to make it ruin the mood. Although, he avoided looking at her, and instead guided himself inside of her.

Her arms wrap around his neck, and while her legs around his waist. Everything was moving, half-heartedly, as if there was no passion. Maybe he was more than, disappointed. He won’t force her to say it, he could tell it was there, but fuck…why can’t she just say it?

His head was at the nook of her neck, and he took in her scent. She still smelled beautiful, she still felt amazing, but he just couldn’t….he stops and pulls away.

Luna sighs and looks away. She knew why the passion was lost, why the passion wasn’t there.

“Garrus?” She whispers, and he lays on his side, his back facing her.

“Let’s just go to bed, alright? Not…in the mood anymore.”

“Okay…let’s just go to bed,” She murmurs.

She stares at his back in sadness, why couldn’t she just…say the damn words. She knows she loves him, just fucking say it!

“I…night Garrus,”

“Night, Luna.”

By morning, Luna was searching her bag, wishing to find the item she needs right now. With a glare, Luna flung another set of clothes to the side of the room. Garrus was lying in bed, trying not to show that he was awake.

Things felt awkward ever since last night. Does not help he did not get off, at all. She was right, it felt horrible, maybe not painful, but he was pent up.

“Seriously, where the fuck is the cream!?” Her thighs were burning from last night, and the guilt of what happened felt like a huge burden on her shoulder.

Standing up, she looks to Garrus, wondering if she should wake him and ask where her cream was. It wasn’t that bad, to be honest, but she needed to focus her mind on something else besides not saying I love you to him.

“Garrus, whe-” She stops, seeing his hand rubbing his, hard, hot, juicy cock. She starts breathing heavily, as she starts feeling herself getting wet.

Walking over to him, she licks her lips, before reaching down and joining his hand at jerking him off. He groans and looks over at her, their eyes met in an intense stare, as they jerk him off.

“Come here,” He said, and she looks up at him with an open mouth and wide eyes. As if hypnotized, removes the sheets, and climbs on top of him.

Without a second thought, he spins them around and is on top of her, kissing her lips. It didn’t take long for him to find himself deep inside of her.

He didn’t go fast; instead, he went slow, trying to savor the feeling of being inside of this beautiful woman. Their hands entwined as he deeply pushes into her. Her legs wrapped tightly against his waist.

Last night was nice, he enjoyed the hell out of his birthday present, but he shouldn’t have been upset at her not saying those three words that he desperately wants to hear from her.

“Luna,” He whispers, as he slowly pumps into the woman he loves. Sure, she hasn’t said it, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t feel it. Actions speak louder than words, right?

She arches her back, “Oh…Garrus,” She moans, feeling herself getting closer and closer.

He looks into her red eyes and kisses her lips. Their tongues met in heated passion, as their heart quicken, and their body burns. He watches as her eyes turn black right in front of him, and before he knew it, she was coming. Screaming as their mouths were connected and her powers burst into him.

Not able to stop himself, he comes, filling her up inside.

***

Their walk to the docking bay was a long, and drawn out. As they knew, it was time to depart. It wasn’t a goodbye, they will see each other again, but…their jobs will keep them apart for a while rather they like it or not.

Luna didn’t say anything as she saw how close they were getting. When will there be a next time she and Garrus will have a moment alone? Will their relationship survive in the future? When the fuck is she going to say, I love you?

Garrus on the other hand was also silent. His mind wanders to his mother, Luna’s mother, his past with his crew and Mayre. He was glad to have moved on from their deaths, but many things in his life, now, is still up in the air, and it annoys him.

When they finally got to the docks, Luna squeezes Garrus’ hand.

“So,” She starts.

“So…” he looks down at her and saw she wasn’t able to look at him, pulling his hand away from her, he pulls her chin up to make her look at him.

“Hey,” She said.

“Hey,” He replies.

Their eyes told each other everything. Happy, sad, angry, love. There were no words because the words weren’t needed right now. His mandibles twitch in pure happiness, as he felt her love warm his body.

He leans down to kiss her deeply, before pulling apart, and their heads touch.

“I’m going to miss you, miss this.” He sighs, “I don’t want to say goodbye,”

“So, let’s not say goodbye,” She whispers, “Let’s say, ‘I’ll see you later,’” She smiles.

With a twitch of his mandibles, he nods and chuckles before kissing her once again.

“I’ll see you later,” He said.

“I’ll see you later,” She repeats.

They begin to walk away, Garrus heading towards his personal ship and Luna towards the Normandy.

Spinning around, she calls out to Garrus and he looks over to her confused.

“I love you,” She finally said, grinning at his surprise.

“I love you too,” He laughs in happiness.

Their Marks tingle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Three Years Later**  
>  \-----------------------------  
> “Hi, my name Eva Core.”
> 
> “Have you ever worked long hours a day, just for an Alien to take that promotion away? How about that Alien, believing they are better than you, just because they live longer? What about the Aliens who have harmed and hurt you and your family, but you were pushed aside just because; You. Were. Human.”
> 
> “Well, I am here to tell you, enough is enough! We, Humans, deserve respect! We deserve power! No more, should we be looked down upon, as if we’re some second rate citizen. No more, should Aliens get away with hurting us! Here, at Cerberus, Humanity is first.”


End file.
